Shelving.com is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 Shelving.com Business Scholarship: Crystal Melson, Karlie Kimerer, and Arslaan Zahid. Receiving over 115 applications, these students stood out with their hands-on dedication to this area. Each year, this scholarship supports Michigan students pursuing a business-related degree who share our belief that business is a tool for building stronger communities.

Giving back is part of who we are. The Shelving.com Business Scholarship is one piece of a broader commitment to community investment that also includes fundraising events benefiting the local Capuchin ministries. We started this scholarship because we wanted to invest directly in students who are already putting that philosophy into practice — people who see their education not just as a path to a career, but as a way to lift up the people and places around them. This year's applicant pool made that mission easy to recognize, and these three winners stood out for the depth of their community involvement and their vision for the future.

First Place: Crystal Melson, Harper Woods, Michigan — $4,000

Crystal Melson is our first-place winner, receiving a $4,000 scholarship. Crystal is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting at Southern New Hampshire University.

As the owner of CrystalClean Cleaning Services, Crystal has spent years learning that success means more than profit; it means creating opportunities for others. She has volunteered as an entrepreneurship instructor through Michigan Works, teaching adults the fundamentals of starting and running a business, and she currently serves as a pro bono business consultant with The Acceleration Project, helping small business owners strengthen their operations and financial practices.

Crystal's long-term goal is to combine a career in accounting and financial management with continued community outreach, including an initiative she hopes to launch called CrystalClean Academy, offering business training, mentorship, and financial education to individuals seeking economic independence across Michigan.

Second Place: Karlie Kimerer, Olmsted, Michigan — $2,500

Karlie Kimerer is our second-place winner, receiving a $2,500 scholarship. Karlie is preparing to attend Michigan State University this fall, where she plans to major in Crop and Soil Sciences with a minor in Agribusiness Management.

Karlie's business education is already taking shape through her work as an agronomy intern at Ottawa Lake Co-Op in Britton, Michigan. There, she manages scale tickets and billing for agricultural inputs, supports the co-op's sales agronomist in making product recommendations to local farmers, and has learned firsthand how inventory management and fair business practices build trust in a tight-knit farming community.

Having grown up on her family's fourth-generation farm, Karlie has seen the pressures farmers face from high input costs and low commodity prices. Her goal is to use her combined knowledge of agriculture and business to support the farmers who have supported her community for generations.

Third Place: Arslaan Zahid, Canton, Michigan — $1,500

Arslaan Zahid is our third-place winner, receiving a $1,500 scholarship. Arslaan is pursuing a dual degree in business and computer science, a path shaped by watching his family's gas station close after many years due to rising competition and pricing pressure.

That experience motivated Arslaan to use technology in service of local businesses. Through Skyline Web Studio, he has built more than five free websites for small businesses in his community, and through student organizations like Mosaic Consulting and MIG at the University of Michigan, he has provided free consulting to local business owners. At just fourteen, Arslaan helped his family get their next gas station back on its feet, giving him an early, firsthand understanding of the challenges small businesses face.

Arslaan hopes to combine his business and technology skills to address issues like wealth inequity and underrepresentation, and to keep giving Canton's small businesses the kind of support his own family needed.

Investing in Students Who Invest in Others

Congratulations to Crystal, Karlie, and Arslaan on this well-earned recognition. Their stories reflect exactly what the Shelving.com Business Scholarship was created to celebrate: using a business education not just to build a career, but to build up the people and communities around you.

This scholarship is one of several ways Shelving.com puts community giving into action. We'll be opening applications for the next Shelving.com Business Scholarship in the spring, so be sure to check our website for details on how to apply.