College tuition can be abig financial burden, but Convenience Store Decisions is committed to offsetting thatburden for its National Convenience StoreAdvisory Group (NCSAG) members.

The NCSAG Scholarship Fund-created for employees or children of employees that are members of the group-recently awarded three separate $1,000 grants to three worthy students. The scholarships are awarded annually and to date CSD has given more than $30,000 to support higher education.

The first recipient is Dexter Wolf of Carmi, Ill. Dexter is the son of Joyce Wolf, an office manager at Martin & Bayley Inc; the parent company of Huck’s Food & Fuel. He’s currently studying physical education at the University of Evansville in Indiana. Though he’s always had a passion for athletics, Wolf developed an interest for physical education his senior year of high school.

“I began to get really into personal fitness and nutrition, and realized it was something I was interested in doing,” said Wolf. “I always wanted to be a teacher as well, so majoring in physical education seemed like a good fit.” Wolf is just starting his sophomore year and spends a lot of his time playingintramural sports, such as baseball, football,soccer and even dodge ball.

The other two recipients are Heatherand Melissa Kastenschmidt, daughters ofKevin Kastenschmidt, a project manager forLacrosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip.

Melissa, the older of the Kastenschmidtsisters, is starting her third year at WisconsinLutheran College, where she is majoringin Communicative Arts, a program whichcombines business, communications andgraphic design. She currently works as thehead layout editor for her school’s newspaper, The Sword. Melissa has always hada penchant for words and the Englishlanguage and spent a lot of time writingfor herself, school newspapers and evenher friends when they’d ask her to edit their homework.

“Since I was little, I’ve always wanted to be an author,”said Melissa. “I was always good with words,and I’ve had a lot of influence and supportfrom those around me while I was growing up.” Melissa is planning on furtheringher journalistic pursuits, hoping to work forone of her favorite magazines once shegraduates.

Heather will be using the grant atBethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn.as she starts her eagerly anticipated freshman year. While she hasn’t finalized hermajor yet, she’s leaning towards studyingmusic or early childhood education-twoareas where she’s always been interested.She’s even thinking about combing the twointo one career.

“I’ve been playing piano since I was fouryears old, and I love spending time with kids.Teaching music to children is something Ireally enjoy, and I think I could do it very well,”explained Heather, who currently works ata local YMCA where she watches childrenwhile their parents are exercising.

Are You The Best On The Web? CSD is on the prowl for the best retailer site on the Internet and we wantto hear what you have to say! Have a great Web site to promoteyour goods and services? Know of a greatWeb site? Then we want to hear fromyou! Convenience Store Decisions is currently collecting nominees for our “BestSite on the Web” competition. Sites will be judged on a host of factors includingdesign, originality, goods and service offered, access to information and easeof navigation. We already have our favorites, now it’s time for the industry toshare their surfing experiences by voting. To nominate a retailer Web site, simply send an email telling us which chains youthink run the best site. The results will betallied by CSD editors and the top five willcompete in a two-week interactive onlinepoll to determine this year’s winner. Thevictor will be announced in the November issue of CSD and recognized by themagazine during the 2007 NACS Show in Atlanta. Let us know which site you thinkis best. Email your top three Web sitenominations to [email protected] or [email protected]