AUBURN — Nicole Belanger and Sophie Martel, second-year students in the Business Administration and Management Program at Central Maine Community College, have been awarded $1,250 scholarships from the Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA) for study during the current academic year.

A resident of Lewiston, Belanger is a graduate of Vineyard Christian School. She has earned high honors while at CMCC and plans to complete her associate’s degree next May. Martel resides in Oxford and graduated from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. She also has earned high honors and plans to graduate in May.

Belanger and Martel are two of 14 Maine community college students to receive a scholarship from MEREDA. This is the fourth year the organization has provided the scholarship. To qualify, students must be a Maine resident, have financial need and be enrolled as a second-year student in a building trades, architecture, construction, engineering or business program at a Maine community college.

The funds for the scholarships were raised through MEREDA’s annual “Strikes for Scholars” bowl-a-thon in May. The association’s goal is to raise enough each year to fund at least one scholarship at each of Maine’s community colleges and support Maine students as they prepare for careers in areas of study that promote MEREDA’s mission of responsible development and ownership of real estate throughout the state.

FMI: www.mereda.org.

Central Maine Community College MEREDA scholarship recipients Nicole Belanger, left, and Sophie Martel, right, are pictured with Shelly Clark, vice president of operations at MEREDA.