A Kendall resident and St. Bonaventure University, student Deborah A. Kruger, was one of two William G. McGowan Scholars for the 2001-2002 academic year. The awards are made in honor of McGowan, a humanitarian and telecommunications pioneer who founded the MCI Communications Corporation in 1968.

The program, administered by the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund Inc., provides a full-tuition scholarship for one year to eligible business majors who have achieved a minimum grade point average of 3.0 and are recommended by at least one School of Business faculty member.

Applicants must also submit a 500- to 1,000-word essay on McGowan's contributions to the telecommunications field in particular, or today's business world in general.

Kruger's essay, titled "The Business World According to McGowan," described how the entrepreneur McGowan destroyed the AT&T monopoly by introducing MCI as a model of achievement through innovation.

Kruger, a student in the university's five-year BBA-MBA program in accounting, has been a regular on the dean's list, having maintained a 4.0 average and been selected to Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society. She expects to graduate with both degrees in May 2003.

She has served on the Campus Activities Board and in the Bonaventure Accounting Association and played intramural soccer at the university, where she has also served as a Friedsam Memorial Library assistant since 1998. During summer 2000, she served as an accounting intern for The Arc of Orleans County, updating depreciation schedules, making adjusting entries within the software system, assisting with purchase orders and reconciling bank statements.

Kruger is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William G. Kruger of Kendall.