Congratulations to Michelle To, the daughter of Phuong To, a Teamster Local 117 member who works at Sysco. 

Michelle is one of the recipients of this year's Jerry Beckendorf Scholarship. Since 2003, the Jerry Beckendorf Community Services Scholarship program has awarded approximately $50,000 to dozens of graduating seniors from Union families living in Pierce County.

Michelle was presented with the award at the Pierce County Central Labor Council meeting on April 12. When she was called up to receive her certificate, all the Teamsters in the house came up to stand with her in support.

Here are a few words about Michelle and her future plans courtesy of the the PCCLC:

Michelle is graduating from Rogers High School and plans on attending the University of Washington for a degree in Pre-Medicine as well as Bioengineering.

Michelle will be the first of her family to attend college, and has set the bar high for herself while remaining humble. She has spent over 1,000 hours giving back to her community through tutoring kids, packaging food, and cleaning and refurbishing toys for low-income children.

Michelle aspires to make a bigger difference in the world by administering medical help and making discoveries in medicine by becoming a Bio-medical engineer.

For her leadership and volunteer work we award her $750.