Meet Justin Hanger — Scholarships are for Scholars

Justin Hanger hanging out @ Runde’s

You might remember Justin Hanger from our blog post back in April. Click here to refresh your memory.  Justin works part-time after school for us taking the online photos of cars, and recording  vehicle videos. This is his story…

Justin started life in Pensacola, FL, where he lived until he was three. Health complications related to his grandparents forced his family to return to small town life in nearby Dickeyville, WI. He has one sister (Andrea, 19) and two brothers (Brian, 13 and Brandon, 6). All of the boys attend Cuba City Schools, with Justin being a Senior at the high school. At the age of 10, Justin got his first experience driving on a cold winter day when he ran a four-wheeler into the back of the neighbors Jeep.  He was driving down the road when he hit a snowbank, which sent him into a cataclysmic spiral towards the aforementioned Jeep. “It barely knocked off the dust off the bumper” according to Justin, but it all turned into a big “hoo-ha” (not quite sure of the correct spelling of “hoo-ha”).”    We move forward in time:

He now works for Runde’s and has to drive our vehicles in order to take photos of them — needless to say that his driving skills have improved a bit since he was ten and we haven’t had any “hoo-ha’s”.

Justin has worked in many locations including the old K-Mart in Platteville (Note: The Kmart store in Platteville is no longer in business, buy its closure was not Justin’s fault.)   He also worked at Canyon Camp, a boy scout camp where he served multiple roles including:  kitchen assistant, rifle range assistant, and outdoors education instructor.  And his current job is at Best Buy where he sells TVs and home theater systems.  He says he wants to go into the field of Education, but who knows — there might be a sales career in his future.

It’s all about mind over matter

In addition to his many jobs, Justin is very involved in several school and community groups. He’s very active with the Lions Club and is a member of their district cabinet as a representative for the Leo Club.  Justin also participates in the National Honor Society, Jay-Teen organization, Boy Scouts of American, the school Golf Team, and is also his class Treasurer. In addition to all of these activities, Justin has been able to maintain a GPA of 3.6, which places him as 11th in his class. He is planning on attending the University of Wisconsin-Stout next year to further his education in the field of Technology Education, but college is very expensive these days and he needs some help footing the bill.  Justin applied for many scholarships in the past few months, and his work finally paid off  this week.

Yesterday, at the high school in Cuba City there was a scholarship ceremony where the graduating seniors were presented with all of their scholarships. Over $190,000 worth of scholarships were distributed to the 53 people in Justin’s class.

Justin Himself snagged up three scholarships altogether.  His accomplishments with the Leo Club earned him a generous scholarship. The family of Craig “Tiny” Weber also honored Justin’s decision of becoming a Tech Ed. teacher with a 2nd scholarship.  And the families of Dan and Shawna Neis rewarded Justin with a third scholarship.  Justin says he was very excited to be chosen as the recipient of the scholarships and he looks forward to whatever lies ahead.

Way to go Justin Hanger!!!