Dr. Mark Penshorn and members of his staff are celebrating 25 years of dentistry in the Randolph Metrocom area.

The Penshorn Dentistry Excellence in Science Scholar-ship will be awarded in May to two seniors, one from Steele High School and one from Clemens High School. The $2,500, to be split equally between the two students, reflects Penshorn’s 25 years in a professional science field.

Penshorn graduated from Clemens High in 1975, continuing his education at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. During the past 25 years he has emphasized providing excellence in every aspect of the dental care he offers his patients.

As a health care professional in the community, he desires to reward those who have excelled in high school science as he did, and encourage them to also pursue a career of excellence in a science-related field.

“People who understand and enjoy science are in short supply in our country,” Penshorn said. “I wanted to celebrate my 25 years as a health care provider by helping others get started. It is important to me that students who love science find a career in that field.”

Seniors who are interested in applying must meet certain eligibility standards: Applicants must have been at Steele High School or Clemens High School for all of their junior and senior years; they must complete at least one AP or IB science class by graduation; they must have taken at least two pre-AP science classes during their four years of science classes; and they must have earned no less than a B in science classes during their junior and senior years.

This award will be heavily based on recorded achievement in science classes and science-related activities during the student’s high school years. It will include a confidential teacher recommendation and may involve an interview.

Interested students are invited to pick up an application from their high school counselor. The deadline for the application and all required materials is April 1. Dr. and Mrs. Penshorn and his wife will review all applications and notify all the applicants in early May with the results of the scholarship awards.

Penshorn has family roots going back more than 150 years in the area, and that depth and commitment is reflected both in his dental practice and his sense of responsibility to the community in which he lives and works. His patient list includes about 40 individuals he has been caring for since he started his practice upon graduation from Dental School in 1982.

Today, he is treating the children of patients who themselves came to him as teen-agers, and he continues to treat many of his high school friends and their parents.

He serves on the SCUCISD’s bond advisory committee and has been a consistent and vocal advocate for protecting Schertz from flooding and over-development.