Congratulations to the 2023-24 Kittyhawk Chapter Scholarship Recipients

My name is Kathleen Ziemba and I am a Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Dayton, minoring in Human Movement Biomechanics. I am so grateful for my education here, as it revealed a passion in sustainability and renewable energy that I previously did not know I had. Outside of classes, I am a student worker for the Hanley Sustainability Institute, am the president of RE-volv, a non-profit that works to put solar panels on local non-profits, and one of the co-presidents of University of Dayton’s Irish Dance Club! In my free time, I love trying new coffees, reading, and exploring Dayton. After graduation, I hope to incorporate sustainable practices into the biomedical industry. I am so grateful for this scholarship as it allows me to pursue all my academic interests at University of Dayton, while relieving some of the financial burden involved.

Due to the support of my family and generous donors like yourself, I have found myself here at The Ohio State University. I am currently in my junior year studying electrical and computer engineering. Most of my days are spent learning and working to support myself. I am proud to say I have maintained a 3.9 GPA. It has not been easy, but I am very blessed to have this opportunity. I truly
enjoy electrical engineering, and I am reminded of the reasons why I am here every day.

Although I have put in a lot of time and hard work while at college, I cannot take all of the credit. I owe a large amount of my success to financial aid. I can only work so hard and save so much. I would not be here without the support of donors like yourself. Truly, I am beyond thankful. You have given me the gift of education. I hope to pay your kindness forward. I know many people have even harder lives than mine, and I would like to one day give them the help they need to prosper. You have made a huge impact on my life, and I am excited to do the same for others.

 I’m Sidney McLean, from Avon Lake, Ohio, and I’m writing to inform you about how grateful I am that you believe in an organization that supports young, hardworking engineers like me. I’m originally from Texas and Arizona but moved to Ohio later in the middle of my high school education. I had always had an interest in STEM, especially building things and math, and so it only made sense that I would pursue a degree in engineering, a field where I could practically use science and math to help solve problems. Once it became time to think about college, I saw how great of an engineering program Ohio State had, and I was sold.

This year I’m looking forward to starting classes based around degree-specific skills. I’ve nearly reached the end of all the math and science requirements and I’m about to start classes entirely based around programming skills and projects that I can use to help get internships and, in the future, an actual job. Outside of pure academics, I’m looking forward to playing more music with friends and going outdoor climbing when the temperature gets better. I’ve put a great amount of time into both studies and I’m looking forward to continuing them when I have free time in the
spring.

As for my favorite classes, I was very fond of this math class I had to take called Foundation of Higher Mathematics. It was my first ever proofs class and I don’t know if it’s my positive mental attitude that was tricking me into liking it or if I’m actually really ambitious about this class, but either way, I was very motivated to do well and explore the world of math proofs. Another one of my favorite classes was this electrical engineering class I had to take called Electronics for CSE majors.
The teacher was really into actually teaching and keeping everyone engaged, and the material of the course itself got me into tinkering with microcontrollers and creating devices to simplify everyday activities in my life.

Looking forward, I would like to engage more with clubs and extracurricular activities here at OSU. I’ve been exceptionally busy these last 3 semesters and I don’t want to let my time at OSU pass me by. In order to take advantage of all OSU has to offer, I’m thinking of giving back to the community through volunteering or helping with various clubs that focus on involvement, like the Society of Women Engineers. I think that giving some of my time to programs like those help enrich other people’s time and my own at OSU. In addition to volunteering, I’m looking into doing research over the upcoming summer here at OSU, either in web development or AI research. The benefits of these are a bit more obvious than the volunteering, but I think obtaining more knowledge and especially practical experience is important.

After graduation, I hope to get a job somewhere down south. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Ohio, but since I’m originally from Texas and Arizona, I do miss the hot weather and high school friends. In terms of long-term goals, I want to achieve a good work-life balance but continue on improving at engineering and development. The hobbies that I mentioned before, climbing and music, have been in life far longer than engineering and coding, and I wouldn’t forgive myself if I pushed them to the side to chase making more money. I want to climb some big mountains and I want to write a full album, but to do both of those things, I have to be good with time management and stay disciplined with my focus. Ohio State has been great over the last 2 years with offering me resources to help battle my attention deficit and taking control of my time so I can continue to improve across all areas of myself. Obviously getting a degree will afford me a job in my chosen field and discipline but there OSU has taught me more about myself that I no longer fear the future.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude for being awarded this scholarship. I don’t know if you really understand the amount of pressure that this scholarship takes off of me. Being awarded some money so that I don’t have to work two jobs this summer or next semester greatly allows me to pursue my academic interests at higher levels. More time getting experience, building new projects to put on my resume, and less time worrying about money are all things that greatly help me not stress about the future and how I’ll budget my time. Again, I hope I’m making myself really clear, without donors like you, it is so much more difficult figuring out how to pay for school without taking on more debt. Your contribution makes a clear impact in my life and again thank you for supporting future engineers! I hope to achieve everything I set out to do in my professional and personal life, and this is one more way of saying that someone is supporting me and telling me I can do it! 

Charles Ritter is a senior at Sinclair studying Software Development and Data Analytics. He works at WPAFB full-time and is also pursuing an internship with an AI-centered research group building backend data pipelines for research proposals for various government entities. He plans on transferring to a bachelor’s program focused on cloud computing upon graduation.

“I am extremely grateful for this award and opportunity. It means a lot, not only as an award that helps now with my education but also as helping with the burden of loans as I look towards my future education.

Thank you for your support, and trust, as I continue to move forward with my future plans and goals.”

Sophia Guzman is a sophomore at Sinclair Community College and is part of the University of Dayton transfer program as a Chemistry major. She is interested in continuing to pursue higher education and is determined to have a career that makes a positive impact. In her free time, she likes to read and work on her research on nanoparticles.

“I want to take the time to thank you for your generosity, I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to learn with less of the financial burden. I hope to pay your kindness forward and am fully committed to doing my very best academically and professionally.”

I have broken a couple of computers in my time. Never once has it been on purpose, but it has always been entirely my fault. However, I own that and accept it as my past. The fact is that if I never broke any computers, I would not be interested in the field of computer engineering.

The first time I broke a computer was the result of trying to understand the workings of the computer. I had gotten a laptop for Christmas when I was 10 or 11 years old. I knew that the keyboard on my grandparent’s computer had keys that could be replaced and moved around, I always enjoyed making words with the letters, but the laptop I was gifted had almost flat keys that I could not figure out how they worked. I took a pair of scissors or a plastic knife and pried one of the keys off of the laptop. With some effort, to my surprise, the key popped off and flew across the room. After finding the key and inspecting it trying to understand how it was held on and why it was so difficult to remove, I found that the key would not go back on the laptop from where I removed it. I took it to my father and asked him to fix it and he informed me that the laptop key was not removable and that I had now broken the laptop. Carefully with some super glue, he fixed the key, and I was much wiser. It was when I was 14 that I learned my second lesson.

My second experience was trying to clean the inside of a desktop my grandparents had after buying a can of compressed air at the grocery store and wanting to try it out. I spent hours trying to fix this computer, paying close attention to the inner workings, and in the end, had my first experience removing and replacing components like RAM and the CPU. I found out later, from a computer technician, that by tipping the can too far that I sprayed some of the freezing cold liquid out and broke a trace on the motherboard. The technician gave me a glimpse of what I want to do in the future.

Sometime in the next few years, I decided I want to be a person who you can come to with any computer problem and be able to fix it, either by replacement or repairs. When I was 18, I spent my graduation money on all the parts needed for a mid-tier gaming computer. I spent about $1200 and after waiting on shipping I put the computer together. Surprisingly the computer POST on the first try and I was successful. Since then, I have built around 7 to 10 computers for family and friends. I have never charged anyone for working on or making a computer because, every time I build a new computer, I find myself having an incredibly good time.

Having a scholarship award would help some financially. My grandpa passed away about a year and a half ago from complications arising from being bedridden, which was caused by a stroke that left him paralyzed on the right side which occurred in 2013. My family has spent a lot of time, effort, and money in making him comfortable, even to the point of our households moving on together. His condition had caused many issues financially that we are only beginning to see resolved.

When I first started here at Wright State I was initially a biology major that was trying to learn during a pandemic. I ended up changing my major to mathematics because it was the one subject throughout all my years of schooling that always made sense to me. As I continue my courses here at Wright State, I fall even more in love with math. I know when some people hear the word math they run away, but that has never been the case for me. I find it so interesting the different ways to solve problems but you always have a definite answer. Math is something that I use every day even when I’m not in class; it has changed the way I view the world around me as well. Being able to study this subject more and get into the heart of it makes me fall in love with math more and more.

I am still unsure what I want to exactly do with my degree in math, but I want to be able to put my knowledge of the subject to do good in the world. Since it is such a wide subject, the job opportunities are endless. I also take great pride in being a female STEM major because it pushes me to work harder for my degree, and to continue to break down boundaries that may be set in front of me.

Through community service, I have been able to spread my love for STEM throughout children in the community. Through the Dayton Metro Library, I have been able to help put together Take-Home STEM kits. Children that receive these kits are able to do their own exploration of the science and math world. Putting these kits together have let me spread my love for science and math to the future generation.

Receiving this scholarship would not only benefit me, but my family as a whole. I live in a family with two college students, and likely a third on the way. By receiving this scholarship, doors would open for my siblings as well, allowing them to pursue their goals and aspirations the way I have been able to thus far.