The Lignite Energy Council, over the past 15 years, has been honored to award the Jeff Burgess Memorial Scholarship to two graduating high school students each year. Recipients receive $1,000 for continuing their education at post-secondary institutions. To qualify for the scholarship students must be graduating from a high school in Burleigh, Morton, Oliver, McLean, or Mercer County and be planning to go into a science-related field of study.
The Jeff Burgess Memorial Scholarship was established in 2010 by family and friends of Jeff Burgess along with the Lignite Energy Council and its members. Jeff Burgess was the Director of Research and Development at the LEC from 2001 to 2009. He passed away in September of 2009 as a result of a car accident. Jeff was a Bismarck, ND native and a 1971 graduate of Bismarck High School. Jeff earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from North Dakota State University, a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and a master’s in public administration from the University of North Dakota.
Some of the best and brightest young minds have eagerly applied for this scholarship over the past 15 years – something the Lignite Energy Council is grateful for. In this Lignite Success Story, we are excited to share where two of the most recent winners of the scholarship are now. These two recipients, Karli Klein and Abigail Meier, agreed to let their stories be told and used to show the success awardees of the scholarship have had:
Karli Klein, a 2023 recipient of the award, is beginning to pave a new way forward in wildlife parasite detection. The college sophomore attends Northern State University (NSU) in Aberdeen, SD, where she is majoring in Nursing and minoring in Biology – and maintains a spectacular 3.95 GPA. She is a part of the NSU Honors program and conducting her research thesis, alongside one of her professors – Dr. Eric Pulis, in detecting and identifying haemogregarnies (a type of parasite) within South Dakota’s Painted Turtle population. Klein and her professor plan to use a process called qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) to measure the number of parasites within the painted turtle population through previously collected blood samples. She was also recently awarded the Northern Edge Award grant to help fund her research – and plans on beginning to run qPCR tests this spring.
Since her initial enrollment at Northern State, Klein has switched her major from Biology to Nursing – but kept Biology as a minor. When speaking about the switch, Klein said, “I decided this would be a better fit for me career- wise because it involves lots of critical thinking, no two days are the same, and I love to help people.” Klein also touched on why she felt it was important to keep Biology relevant in her studies as well, “I still love learning about all things biology and feel that it is still an important topic to study going into healthcare, especially when bacteria and viruses get involved.”
Abigail Meier, a 2022 recipient of the award, has also been excelling during her college experience. Currently a junior at the University of North Dakota, Abigail is studying Medical Laboratory Science and holds a perfect 4.0 GPA. She has also been able put her studies to skillful use by working in multiple locations in North Dakota as a Phlebotomist – including Bismarck’s Northern Plains Laboratory and Grand Forks’ Altru Health System. Meier attributes her choice to go into Medical Laboratory Science to taking advanced science courses in high school and having different associations – such as the Lignite Energy Council – encourage her to do well in difficult classes.
The Lignite Energy Council is extremely pleased with the achievements of the recent recipients of the Jeff Burgess Memorial Scholarship. Karli and Abigail’s accomplishments demonstrate the hard work and dedication North Dakota students exemplify repeatedly. We hope that their success inspires high school seniors from the counties of Burleigh, Morton, Mercer, McLean, and Oliver to apply for the 2025 edition of the Jeff Burgess Memorial Scholarship. The LEC cannot wait to see what the future holds for their fast-approaching professional careers!