Scholarship recipients plant flowers at mansion

As part of a program sponsored by Barrick Goldstrike mine, three students spent the day Monday planting flowers at the Governor's Mansion.

"It's been fun," said Amanda Feehan, a 19-year-old University of Nevada, Reno student. "It's a way to get outdoors."

The students received scholarships for $2,000 a year from the mine, which is north of Carlin.

Recipients must be children of a mine employee and are given the option to work at the mine over the summer and earn up to $4,500.

"It's a great program," said Nathan Cresswell, 20, and student at Dixie College in St. George, Utah. "It helps you out financially and it gives you a lot of skills."

The program matches a student's interests with job description.

"I'm going into computer services and later on in the summer, I'll be going into the Internet services part of the mine," said K.J. Burke, 22, who attends Great Basin College in Elko. "It's one of those things where they try to give you job skills."

Feehan is a public relations major and will be giving tours of the mine throughout the summer.

Community relations representative Teresa Plank said it is a valuable program.

"It think it's wonderful," she said. "It gives them the opportunity to get out and meet the public and it gives them an idea of what their job will be like."

Barrick Goldstrike donated the landscaping materials to the Governor's Mansion for the renovations planned by first lady Dema Guinn.

"I think it's great," Guinn said. "It's a wonderful program."

The students took a tour of the entire grounds to see the renovation projects.

"I think it looks really good," Feehan said. "The back yard looks really nice."