Mills Family Scholarship

Barbers Hill ISD Education Foundation awards first Mills Family Scholarship

Barbers Hill High School senior Katelyn Sanchez is the first recipient of the Mills Family Scholarship, an annual $10,000 award from the Barbers Hill Education Foundation for any K-12 Barbers Hill student who wants to pursue a degree in the oil and/or petrochemical business.

Sanchez hopes to pursue a petroleum engineering degree next year, and work in Texas after her college graduation. Both her parents work in the oil and gas field locally.

She said the part of this job and industry that interests her the most is finding new ways to extract oil.

“The Earth and our society are always changing and, with that our needs change, so finding new ways to get the oil that we need is fascinating to me. Overall I hope to be good at what I do and find new ways to get oil and plan better for our earth and pursue petroleum engineering.”

The scholarship is named after longtime Barbers Hill ISD ambassador, supporter and Barbers Hill Class of 1959 member Al Mills who passed away in 2022.

Mills was best known as the longtime chairman and master of ceremony of the Barbers Hill Sports Hall of Honor.

Mills’ father, George, was a longtime Barbers Hill school board member, serving from 1945 to 1963.

“Al Mills gave so much of his time, energy and resources to this fine school district and it’s only fitting that Barbers Hill children are still benefitting in his name,” said Superintendent Dr. Greg Poole.

Barbers Hill ISD established the Mills Family Scholarship in 2022 with the intent to award an annual $10,000 scholarship for any K-12 Barbers Hill student who wants to pursue a degree in the oil and/or petrochemical business.

Anyone interested in donating to the Mills Family Scholarship endowment can call Amber Young at 281-576-2221 ext. 1241 or email her at amber.young@bhisd.net.

All donations to the Mills Family Scholarship are tax deductible.