More than a dozen students from six HISD high schools are $16,000 closer to achieving their dreams of higher education, thanks to an organization founded by the descendant of an HISD school’s namesake and her husband.

Katerina Mayfield, Anna Ngo, Pei Wen (Bellaire HS); Mykel Easely (Carnegie Vanguard HS); Karen Castillo, Joceylin Duarte, and twins Ashley and Ted Obi (DeBakey HS); Miguel Castillo, Tuyet Tran (East Early College HS), Willow Curry (HSPVA), and Wesley Chang (Westside HS) were recently announced as 13 of the 70 Houston-area students selected this year to receive scholarships from the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation.

Mary Hamman, who founded the non-profit in 1954, was the daughter of Charles H. Milby, a highly respected civic leader who was instrumental in building the Houston Ship Channel, and for whom an HISD high school was named in 1926.