Graduates Awarded Scholarships

In May, the chapter held its scholarship luncheon at Carrabbas in North Charleston. This year, the chapter awarded $3,000 scholarships to 17 local graduating seniors entering technical fields of study in college. Over the past four years, the chapter has awarded over 60 scholarships to local graduating seniors. “We had another outstanding year of quality applicants,” said Terry Watkins, Southeastern regional director, Webster Data Communications, who also serves as chair for the chapter's Education Committee. “We had a record number of applications with the winners having an average SAT score of 1950, an average ACT score of 30 and an average GPA of 4.76. We're beginning to see some of our past scholarship winners returning to the Charleston area to work with AFCEA in supporting our warfighters,” says Watkins. The chapter supports the U.S. Navy's high tech Engineering Center located in North Charleston. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) Atlantic provides the Navy, Defense Department and other federal agencies technical solutions in the Command and Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) arena. According to the chapter, work assigned to SPAWAR Atlantic has grown at an average of over $250 million per year for the last 15 years. This tremendous growth has presented the community with the goal of finding enough engineers and computer scientist to accomplish the tasks. Accordingly, the chapter is encouraging students to enter the fields of science. The chapter's 2010 scholarship winners are George R. Alford III, Clemson University, mechanical engineering; Kamaal K. Brown, Clemson University, electrical engineering; William O. Bryans, Georgia Tech, nuclear engineering; Rachel K. Ett, Yale University, mathematics; Laura K. Gamble, Wofford College, biology; Parker K. Gibbs, Brigham Young University, mechanical engineering; Dennis Gnamm, South Carolina University, mechanical engineering; Kylie M. Gomes, South Carolina University, mechanical engineering; Nora M. Hlavac, Clemson University, chemical engineering; Dale R. Jones, Clemson University, engineering/computer science; Paul C. Kern, Georgia Tech, mechanical engineering and computer science; Elliott D. Mappus, Clemson University, engineering; Tiffany R. Mills, Erksine College or Clemson University, mathematics; Robert O'Brien III, Clemson University, engineering; Angela M. Patat, Georgia Tech, engineering; Colton L. Rudd, Clemson University, computer science; Stephanie M. Wood, Case Western Reserve University, biology.

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