This week, the Community Foundation of St. Clair County announced the latest award recipients for the Come Home Reverse Scholarship Program. Financial advisor Will Metzner and chiropractor Courtney Pesta join the ranks of Come Home award recipients with a combined $20,000 awarded. Metzner and his fiancée, who moved to the area from Georgia, recently bought a home in St. Clair, where they have both previously lived, although Metzner is originally from the south. He was offered a $15,000 Come Home Award this summer courtesy of a grant from the foundation’s St. Clair based funds. Pesta was offered $5,000 from the Come Home Award. A former long-time area resident, she is back in Port Huron and works at Lakeview Chiropractic. Pesta said the area is where she “grew up surrounded by family, where [she] fell in love, and where found a lifelong passion for gymnastics…” The Come Home Award is a talent retention program that pays students on the back-end of their college career, after they have completed a degree in a STEAM-related field, but only if they agree to move back home and work within the St. Clair County. Since 2016, the program has helped 16 college graduates pay off $123,000 in student debt as they pursue local careers in the county. The program is currently seeking applicants interested in living in the City of Port Huron, the City of St. Clair or surrounding area, or working as non-physician staff at McLaren Port Huron Hospital.
