Milton C. Head Scholarship Honors Trade-Minded Graduates – Cibola Citizen
July 2, 2025
Milton C. Head Memorial Scholarship recipients pose with a member of the selection committee after receiving their awards. From left: Committee member, Christian Martinez, Demetrio Trujillo, Jaylin Caladitto, and Johalys Diaz Alberto. The scholarships honor the legacy of Milton C. Head by supporting students pursuing careers in welding, diesel mechanics, and marketing. Courtesy Photo
A late but very sincere congratulations to seven Grants High School recipients of the Milton C. Head Memorial Scholarship. The committee awarded three, one-thousand-dollar scholarships and four, two-hundredfifty- dollar scholarships after reviewing more than seventy applications.
Milton Carrol Head was born and raised in Grants. He was a graduate of GHS where he excelled academically and athletically. He briefly attended New Mexico State University but returned home before graduating to support his family. After his return, he became a contract miner and supervisor in the uranium mines. He invented a machine to automatically load ore cars and became very skilled in welding, construction, masonry, and other vocational areas. Later he got into the mining industry. He worked as a miner for many years throughout the US as well as in Papua, New Guinea, Alexandria, Egypt, and Japan. When the mining industry fell, he obtained his general contractor’s license as well as his real estate broker’s license. He built and renovated over 20 homes in the Grants area, one completely from scratch using property pine trees and a sawmill. Milton had a passion for inventing, building, and fixing anything that came his way and he did it in the most precise and quality fashion. Because of his lifelong interest and skill in vocational work, most of the recipients were chosen because of their intent to pursue careers in some type of vocational trade.
The one-thousand dollar recipients were Johalys Diaz Alberto and Christian Martinez who are both pursuing careers in welding and Jaylin Caladitto who is going into marketing at Utah Tech. Additional recipients were Devin Martinez, who will be working toward becoming a electrical lineman, Ernesto Fernandez will get his electrical license first and follow up with a welding license, Dellonica Bodie has already received her associates degree and will be going to Oklahoma to work on her electrician’s license, and Demetrio Trujillo who is already enrolled in a diesel mechanics program.
Committee members interviewed the finalists near the end of the school year and were extremely impressed with each of the students’ hard work ethic, respect, confidence, perseverance and desire to give back to their communities. They attributed their drive and commitment to their families and loved ones and most have a plan to come back home to give back to their community as skilled trade professionals.
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