Scholarship Committee Update

By Peter Huijbers

Regional Head of Commercial - Asia Pacific

Hong Kong Aviation Capital

Scholarship Committee Chair

The ISTAT Scholarship Committee welcomes Andy LaStella. Andy will be replacing Ken Perich who decided to devote his time to another Foundation committee. We thank Ken very much for all his efforts in and support to the Scholarship Committee, and whilst leaving this committee we are very pleased he will remain supportive of the Foundation.

Dana Lockhart stepped down from the role as chairman of the Scholarship Committee. We thank Dana for the guidance he has provided to the Scholarship Committee, ensuring it was well-staffed and introducing improvements to the scholarship process. We will continue to be able to tap into his experience as Dana will remain on the Scholarship Committee. Peter Huijbers took over the role as chairman.

Alyssa Anfuso left SmithBucklin for other aspirations. We thank her for all the hard work she provided to both the Scholarship Committee and the Foundation.

At ISTAT Americas, three new platinum scholarship donors were announced, and these have significantly raised the support the Foundation can give to students passionate about aviation but in need of a little tail wind. In regards to the annual scholarships, we obtained 52 applications from 15 nationalities, and the committee will soon finish its evaluation of these applications.

The process of accepting and reviewing applications was overhauled in a subcommittee led by Murrae Ross-Eskell and took place from 13 December until recently. The subcommittee sought feedback from universities around the world and found that the previous process started too late and led to students not knowing early enough if they had obtained a scholarship or not. Further optimized are the communication to the universities by ISTAT (HQ), the application and financial aid form, the scholarship amounts and the number of universities being contacted.

At ISTAT Asia, Hoi Yiu Chan who studies in Sydney, participated and was thrilled to see what the ISTAT community can do and has already started to spread the news within her own community.