West Virginia University students Stephen Seem of Martinsburg and Kyria Henry of Round Hill, Va., were recently honored with the first West Virginia Roundtable David C. and Susan Hardesty Jr. Leadership Scholarship.

Seem and Henry will each receive $1,200 toward tuition. The annual scholarship is for deserving West Virginia residents, one male and one female, who are enrolled as full-time undergraduate students at WVU with a minor in Leadership Studies or who have completed course work in leadership classes. Students are chosen based on their leadership activities on and off campus, their desire to develop leadership skills that have the potential to benefit the future of West Virginia, and their proven academic promise.

Stephen Seem and Kyria Henry are terrific examples of what the future of leadership looks like,said Maria Yester, director of the Center for Executive Education in WVU s College of Business and Economics.They embody qualities that we encourage in our rising leaders, and we were happy to introduce them to the West Virginia business community.

Seem, a senior accounting major, is working on a Bachelor of Science degree. He is president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, where he has held the positions of assistant pledge educator and secretary. Seem is also a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor fraternity, Golden Key International Honour Society, Gold and Blue Student Ambassadors and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. He plans on attending law school at WVU and practicing within the state.

Before college, I dont think I ever really considered pursuing a life in the field of leadership; often times I found leadership roles thrust upon me,Seem said.However, I decided I was very interested in the leadership program at WVU after I completed the leadership section of University 101 with David Stewart (associate vice president of student affairs and dean of students). He was a great inspiration, and I believe that much of my path at WVU can be attributed to his early guidance.

Henry anticipates graduating next December with a bachelors degree in multidisciplinary studies, with concentrations in business administration, religious studies, speech pathology and audiology. She is co-founder, along with her father, of the paws4people foundation, a nonprofit corporation that provides highly trained assistance dogs to students, seniors and the seriously ill or disabled. Henry is part of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and has been a WVU cheerleader. She plans on working for the paws4people foundation full-time after she graduates.

I have always been naturally inclined to be a leader whenever I am in a group situation,Henry said.Ive always known I didnt want to have a �€~normaljob, so it was natural for me to sort of create one for myself.

Seem and Henry were recognized during the recent West Virginia Leadership Conference in Morgantown. The conference is a project of the nonprofit West Virginia Roundtable in cooperation with West Virginia: A Vision Shared!, a program of the West Virginia Council for Community and Economic Development. Conference sponsors included WVU , Bowles Rice, Dixon Hughes, Jackson Kelly, Spilman Thomas&Battle, Steptoe&Johnson, The State Journal and United Bank.