Heinz Prechter Scholarship recipients will be selected through an application and in-person interview process open to all interested students who are currently enrolled in good standing at a public or private college or university in Michigan and who have attained at least junior-class status. The chamber will provide a $2000 scholarship to each of the three scholarship winners. Dr. Ray Schaub, emeritus GACC Michigan board member, designed and chairs the scholarship program.

The purpose of the grants is to encourage more Michigan students to learn about German business, life and culture by living and working in Germany. The stipends are named in honor of Heinz Prechter to commemorate the unparalleled contributions that he made to the advancement of international relations between Michigan and Germany.

In 2002, the German-American Chamber of Michigan proudly awarded its first Heinz Prechter Tribute Scholarship to Erin Krumrei of the University of Michigan. Krumrei, who studies German and Economics, received $2,000 to pursue an internship opportunity with BMW in Munich.

"Your scholarship combines numerous elements Heinz cared deeply about," says Waltraud Prechter, Prechter's widow and president of the World Heritage Foundation, "including German-American relations, our great state, and developing young people by exposing them to opportunities in the public and private sector. Undoubtedly, Heinz would have been pleased with the project."