Hunter Huss senior receives the Paul Fuller Mentoring Scholarship

Alaina Peavy, a senior at Hunter Huss High School, has been awarded the 2025 Paul Fuller Mentoring Scholarship.

The $4,000 scholarship ($1,000 per year for four years) is given annually to a student who has been positively influenced by a mentor.  It is named in memory of Paul Fuller, one of the first mentors in Gaston County Schools, who was instrumental in helping establish the school district’s mentoring program in the 1990s.

Peavy plans to attend the University of North Carolina at Greensboro this fall to study art education. She has been on the A/B honor roll at Hunter Huss and had her artwork featured in Gaston County Schools’ “Through an Artist’s Eyes” exhibit. She has also participated each year in the school’s lantern parade and created large-scale artwork for the Hunter Huss athletics department and The Dream Center Academy.

Her mentor is Aman Seltun, a social worker for Gaston County Schools and staff member at The Dream Center Academy.  In her scholarship essay titled “The Mentor Who Changed My Life,” Peavy wrote, “Mr. Seltun encouraged me to take ownership of my choices, start thinking about who I want to be, and who I want people to see. He didn’t hand me the answers; he helped me find them for myself.”

Peavy said she wants to use her talents to show others how art can be a powerful and positive force in their lives.  She hopes to one day become an art teacher.

The Gaston County Schools Business Partnerships Office oversees the school district’s mentoring program and is responsible for coordinating and awarding the Paul Fuller Mentoring Scholarship each year.