Meet some of our VASBA Scholarship recipients! Learn more about their paths of study, connections to the community and next steps towards their future in STEM.
Cierra is a student at Tidewater Community College and writes:
"Thank you so much for selecting me to be a Virginia Aerospace Business Association Scholarship recipient. It has helped to alleviate costs for books and my scientific calculator. This semester has been busy as I'm currently enrolled in C++, Physics II (Electricity & Magnetism), Circuit Theory, and Differential Equations. I'm falling more in love with engineering each passing semester and can't wait to see what the future has in store for me. I am also looking to apply to Old Dominion and VCU for the upcoming school year."
Another recipient is Joel Goddot, a student at Virginia State University. After arriving in the USA in May 2012, from Cameroon, Joel attended T.C. Williams High School where he joined the TC Williams Army JROTC. Then in Fall 2015, he started at VSU and excelled and engaged with various team activities such as VSU Honor Program, Kappa Mu Epsilon, National Society of Leadership and Success, VSU App Development, African Students Association. Last summer, Joelreceived a summer research internship with College of Williams and Mary with focus on using big data to predict and prevent the onset of septic in premature babies who are more likely contract sepsis because of their under-develop immune system.
Bryanne Peterson is a Ph.D. student studying Integrative STEM Education at Virginia Tech. She is expected to graduate in 2018, and currently has a 4.0 g.p.a. Up until January 2017 (when she began her residency at Virginia Tech), she has been going to school while continuing her work in the classroom. She balances her school and work with her family, which includes her husband and three children- ages 6, 3, and 1. Bryanne also continues to serve in the U.S. Army Reserve, where she has 16 years of experience, including as a basic combat training drill sergeant and in 2008 was deployed to Iraq. In her day-to-day work, Bryanne has a decade of experience in schools, including: public, private and home-school education from pre-k through to high school; teaching multiple subjects, with focus on Career and Technical Education and STEM.
Cadet Clay Penney of the Virginia Military Institute writes:
In order to be a successful Electrical and Computer Engineering major you have to have a strong passion for solving engineering problems and enough motivation to find the solution even if it takes multiple attempts. I have always believed that with enough hard work and determination, you can solve almost any problem. Upon graduation I would like to have a job with the government or a government subcontractor so I can serve my country and help lead technological development. The VASBA wants to be a leader in technological development in the future and I can help them do that. As an electrical engineer and computer engineer I will be able to help design and program devices used to study and visit space.
