Scholarship Fund Update

NHA Scholarship Fund and the 2022 Selection Slate

By CAPT Arne Nelson, USN (Ret.) President (NHA LTM #4 RW#- 13762)

Two years ago, I shared an anecdote regarding the three essential crisis action steps of senior Naval leadership. Maybe you remember the Pentagon’s three-envelope turnover gouge (blame, reorganize, prepare three envelopes). This past year, the NHASF leadership skipped envelope 1 (blame) and went right into step two.

With our newly reorganized Scholarship Committee, we prepared for the 2022 selections, leaving the regional presidents to recommend regional award winners and a “Functional Committee” to select active-duty personnel and military spouses.

In March, the NHA Board of Directors approved the slate. The general comment coming out of the selection boards was that our 2022 pool of 50 eligible applicants was highly competitive. We are proud to announce the awardees for the 2022 NHA Scholarship Fund (see column to the right). Of note, four of our scholars are return awardees: Lucy Young (University of Maryland), Carly Vigeant (Arizona State University), Julia Frey (The Ohio State University) and Shane Ball, a three-time awardee and Mark Starr memorial recipient (University of Colorado).

Our overall goal is to have selections announced at the annual NHA Symposium in May 2022. We intend to make our payments to the various school’s financial offices no later than 1 August 2022. The Scholarship Committee is updating the operations manual with a goal of streamlining the application procedures and the selection process.

Apply. Our website is in work with a goal to be ready for the next application season 1 September 2022 to 31 January 2023. Most important, the successful applicant will continue to be a solid academic profile, with good grades in the toughest environment. Other attributes follow: athletics, school extracurriculars, and community service … so NHASF is still looking for the all-around great student; not really different than the selections NHASF has made going back to 1993.

NHASF 2022 SlAte ANd FuNd SourceS

Region One

Lauren Jones Reg 1 Director’s Scholarship/NHA, (HS) Liam Conlon USS Midway Museum Foundation, (HS) Shane Ball* NHAHS Mark Starr Memorial/NHA, U. Colorado

Region Two

Lucy Young* Reg 2 NHA Director’s U. Maryland, Lauren Adams Teledyne FLIR Memorial Washington University of St Louis Emma Marsh Kaman Memorial / NHA award, Wash & Lee U.

Region Three

Stephanie Navin, NHA Reg 3 Director’s GA Tech Michael Pedicone USS Midway Museum, Florida State College Sarah Reilein, Region 4 Director’s NHA award Auburn

Region Four

Carly Vigeant* HS-5/Capt Bill Roop Memorial, ASU Bronwen Bailey Teledyne FLIR Wellesley College Julia Frey* Raytheon STEM Ohio State

Active-Duty Personnel

LT Joshua Wombolt, USCG, NHA BoD Scholarship Ohio U.

Military Spouse

Megan Buriak, Gold Star, USS Midway Museum U. San Diego My Le Ream Family Memorial, NHA BoD South College

The three Region 5 and 6 candidates competed in regions 3 and 4.

*denotes previous NHA Scholarship Awardee

Donate. Over the last year, we noted that our investment accounts were growing steadily, thanks to the foresight of earlier leadership, but in 2022 donations are down, accompanied, thus far, by recent unrealized losses in our investment accounts – still healthy, but down. We’d like to strengthen our ties to existing corporate sponsors, develop some new partnerships and raise awareness among our flags, trustees, active-duty shipmates, both enlisted and officer, maintenance personnel and aircrew. This will include memorial and community legacy awards (e.g., H-5/Bill Roop, Big Iron legacy, and legacy and memorials for our historic squadrons and memorials to fallen shipmates.)

This spring, our goal is to raise an additional $10,500 (or three scholarships) by 31 May to make up for some corporate sponsorships that dropped off unexpectedly. We’ll go to the new (HSC and HSM) and old (HM/HC/HS/HSL) communities and ask for a generous, leadership donation to sustain our scholarship funds. More additionally, we rely on continued growth of the gifts established 15 years ago by Raytheon, Kaman, Ream Family, and Don Patterson’s 1000 Points of Light that founded our investment accounts And, to make giving easier, we have added a QR code tied to our PayPal accounts to direct your generous donations ($5, $50, $100, etc.).

Remember, the scholarships are not just for our kids and grandchildren, but for our spouses and shipmates, too! Since 1993, NHA Scholarships have been awarded to hundreds of the best and most fully qualified NHA affiliated Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel and their family members to help with the rising costs of higher education. Look at our website https://www. nhascholarshipfund.org and tell your shipmates and family members to look at our scholarship program … and … Apply and Donate.

Lauren Jones (High School)

Liam Conlon (High School)

Shane Ball - University of Colorado Mark Starr Memorial Award

Lucy Young - University of Maryland

Stephanie Navin - Georgia Tech

Lauren Adams - Washington University of St. Louis

Michael Pedicone Florida State College

Emma Marsh Washington and Lee University - Kaman Family Memorial and NHA Scholarship Fund

Sarah Reilein Auburn University

Carly Vigeant - Arizona State University

Bronwen Bailey - Wellesley College

Julia Frey Ohio - State University

LT Joshua Wombolt, USCG Purdue - Active-Duty Personnel

My Le South College Military Spouse

Megan Buriak - University of San Diego Gold Star Family / Military Spouse

BREAKING NEWS!!

Mr Dominic Sargiotto of Gilbert AZ visited NHA and provided a tour of the NHA offices and the flight line squadrons. After a brief visit to the flight line, he was hosted at the IBar with a chance to rub elbows with offduty Naval Aviators and get a feel for Naval Aviation.

Mr Sargiotto, as a “friend of Naval Aviation (and NHA)”, has donated $3500 for a 16th full scholarship in the 2022 Scholarship rounds. With Mr Sargiotto’s discussions focused on Navy helicopter aviation, it is appropriate that the 16th 2022 award be provided to LT Victor Nguyen who will be pursuing graduate studies at Ohio University.

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