Newsletter
Cochise Chapter Awards 2008 Scholarships
19 June: The Cochise Chapter of the Association of Old Crows (AOC)
awarded $1,000 scholarships to three of this year’s Buena High School graduates at the Chapter
Luncheon held at Thunder Mountain Activity Center (TMAC), Ft. Huachuca.
Historically, the chapter awards a single $1,000 annual scholarship,
renewable for up to four years, provided the student maintains good grades
in the field of engineering. This year, however, the three winners (the best
of 27 competitors) are so outstanding, there was no way to choose
just one.
Declaring them this year’s “A Team," Mr. Lee Ilse, Chapter Scholarship Chairman, said each
richly deserved the scholarship.
He included in this exhortation not only the Scholarship awardees, but
another group of students in attendance —
members of the Buena High School Nifty Engineering Robotics Design Squad
(NERDS), whom he invited to address the audience.
Andrea
Miller, a NERDS alumna, took the floor with her colleagues, possibly for the
last time.
Kevin Forbes, NERDS, described their success in the 3 years since the
group's inception, and thanked the Intelligence Electronic Warfare Test
Directorate (IEWTD), Ft. Huachuca, and AOC, among others, for their
technical and financial support. The audience was treated to a video
of Robotics competitions from years past and a chance to peruse the NERDS
latest creation
—
a robot capable of
work underwater.
We welcome the NERDS as Student AOC members, and look forward to great things from
them and the 2008 Cochise Chapter AOC Scholarships
winners!
This year's recipients, future colleges, and fields of study are
• Andrea Miller (far right),
Stanford University, Major: Aeronautical or
Electrical Engineering.
• Arman Reyes (far left),
University of
Arizona, Major:
Computer Science Management.
• Aaron Sindelar (second from left),
Northern
Arizona University, Major(s): double Engineering
Degrees
Mr. Kevin Peterson COL, USA(Ret), Chapter President, was the
luncheon’s keynote speaker.
Mr. Peterson pointed out
that it is the thinkers of the world, many of them engineers, who help power
society. As an example, he cited the Greek mathematician, physicist,
engineer, inventor, and astronomer Archimedes, who, having solved a complex
problem through his observations of water displacement while taking a bath,
shouted “Eureka!” (“I have found
it!”), leapt from his tub, and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse, celebrating his
discovery.
It is those possessed of such passion and intellectual ferment that drive
innovation and make life better, he added.
Mr. Peterson challenged
the young people to advance the work of preceding generations, finding
solutions to as yet unsolved problems and making their own indelible mark on
the world.
