This year’s honorees include a Midwest retailer and two multi-store independents, one in New York and the other in New England.
NAJA names first scholarship winners
Heidi Harders and Kathleen Marino are the winners of the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers’ first annual scholarship to attend the World of Gems Conference this summer.
Rego Park, N.Y.--Heidi Harders and Kathleen Marino are the winners of the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers’ first annual scholarship to attend the World of Gems Conference this summer.
The two will attend the fourth edition of the World of Gems Conference, scheduled for Sept. 20 to 21 in Rosemont, Ill., through funding from the 2014 Howard Rubin Educational Foundation Scholarship. The scholarship was founded in memory of longtime graduate gemologist Howard Rubin, the NAJA’s former national secretary who died in January 2012 at the age of 86.
The scholarship is available to NAJA members only and was created to advance education relating to gem and jewelry personal property appraising and to award scholarships to members to attend courses, classes, workshops and conferences.
Harders, a graduate gemologist from Chicago, has been an appraiser and member of NAJA since 1996 and says the World of Gems Conference “goes above and beyond.”
Marino, a graduate gemologist from Rochester, Minn., is a novice appraiser and joined NAJA in 2013. She said continual education is “integral to growing as a gemologist and an appraiser.”
Based in Rego Park, N.Y., NAJA is the largest membership organization specializing exclusively in gem and jewelry appraising and related appraisal issues.
For additional information contact Gail Brett Levine at 718-896-1536.
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