Clark School Celebrates Scholarship Donors, Recipients

Engineering scholarship donors, and the student recipients benefiting from those scholarships, had the chance to meet each other during the Clark School’s annual scholarship luncheon at the Kim Building this week.

The crowd of more than 60 scholarship patrons and even more students who have received those scholarships listened to talks from two scholarship donors and two scholarship beneficiaries. Joe Furino, university relations manager for BAE Systems, which sponsors the BAE Systems Scholarship and is a Clark School Corporate Partner, talked about the need to help students study engineering so that they can take the place of retiring engineers in the years to come and increase the competitiveness of the United States in the fields of engineering.

"In the long run, it's going to benefit all of us," Furino said.

John B. Norris, Jr., '66, of the County Engineers' Association of Maryland, which sponsors the Roger H. Willard Scholarships, also spoke to the crowd about the significance of creating opportunities through scholarships.

Michael Dollinger, an undergraduate materials science and engineering major, recipient of the Dean's Scholarship and a H. Russel Knust Memorial Scholar, thanked all of the donors for their commitment to scholarships.

Renee Marshall, an undergraduate civil engineering major, and recipient of three scholarships—the Perry Laudenslager Memorial Scholarship, the Dale Waldo Scholarship and the Maryland Section of the ASCE Foundation Scholarship—emotionally thanked the Laudenslagers for their support when she addressed the crowd.

Almost 700 students benefited from engineering scholarships this year. Despite more than $1.7 million available for these scholarships, Dean Nariman Farvardin told that crowd there is still $2 million in need for students seeking financial support for their studies. He thanked the donors for their commitment to the Clark School and asked that they encourage others to join them in supporting engineering students.

Published October 27, 2005