Aran Dergevorkian KJ6YJS

Thank you very much for this extremely generous scholarship. I'm honored to have been chosen for this award. This scholarship will help me with a substantial portion of my tuition costs, which will be of great help to me. .I am Aram Dergevorkian, a third-year electrical engineering student at California Polytechnic University, Pomona. I’ve been an amateur radio operator for six years, and I’m currently the president of the Cal Poly Pomona amateur radio club (K6CPP). Over the last two years we’ve been exploring digital modes, both for HF and UHF operation. We have installed both SvxLink and a Multi-Mode Digital Voice Modem (MMDVM) (allowing DMR, P25, D-STAR, and System Fusion) nodes on our campus, and have also worked with UCLA’s amateur radio club (W6YRA) to install a SvxLink node on their repeater.

Outside of school, I intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, volunteer with the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association, and tinker with electronics. For my last two summers at JPL I’ve been working on low power instrument controllers for CubeSats/SmallSats using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), softcore processors, and radiation tolerant microcontrollers. The software I’m developing is designed for ease of implementation in a variety of instrument systems and will likely be used on JPL’s upcoming PREFIRE CubeSat. As the electronics lead for the La Cañada Rose Parade float, I’m currently responsible for building our new animation system. The system will debut in the 2019 Rose Parade, were it will be animating three animatronic musicians on our float Tree Frog Night. Thanks again for this generous scholarship.

Joe Thielan WX0JT

My name is Jon Thielen , WX0JT, and I am from Buffalo, MN. This fall, I am entering my senior year at Iowa State University where I am majoring in meteorology and mathematics with a focus on research. I want to sincerely thank you for the great honor of receiving the one of the 10-10 International Net scholarships this year. Throughout my time as a student at Iowa State University studying meteorology and mathematics, I have been graciously supported by scholarship donors and sponsoring organizations like yours. This has made it possible for me to take advantage of all the academic, research, and extracurricular opportunities that have come my way over these past several years, and to have the chance to volunteer in my church and community along the way. I know that this scholarship for my senior year will similarly be a tremendous help. As I think about all the support I have received from the amateur radio community for my studies, I am deeply humbled and grateful to be able receive this kind of assistance from the community surrounding the hobby that has led me in many ways to where I am. From a very young age, I have been fascinated by science and technology, especially relating to electronics and the weather. This led me to Skywarn and amateur radio in late elementary school. In my early days as a ham, I learned as much as I could through reading books and participating in the local amateur radio club in order to satisfy my curiosity and work my way up to an Extra class license. Since then, I’ve continued to be involved consistently in Skywarn and occasionally in some research projects at Iowa State and different club activities. My involvement in amateur radio has also led to me taking an interest in tinkering with electronics and computers, and has therefore opened up the door for much of what I do now. This started with customizing hardware and software, but it eventually led to working in web development and running various Linux distributions, and then in college to a fair amount of scientific programming and software development. For example, I just finished an internship with Unidata in Boulder, CO, which has given me the chance to work with many of the experts in the field of meteorological software (several of whom also happened to be hams). I hope to continue my experiences in software development in the future by participating in open-source projects. Additionally, in my career, I hope to utilize all that I have learned to undertake research on severe weather phenomena and weather modeling. Through this, I plan to partake in the meteorological community’s efforts to improve our understanding of severe weather hazards so that we can improve warning accuracy and lead times to help the public. Thanks again for this generous scholarship.

Brad Zeigler KC0CDG

 I am writing to thank you for your generous $2000 scholarship award. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my educational pursuits and what this award means to me. After graduating from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 2004 with my Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, I spent ten years as a high school educator. I had the opportunity to work with numerous students while teaching engineering, electronics, robotics and computer science. I decided last year to leave my job in the IT industry after realizing my passion was still in the classroom. I relocated back to Rolla and began the pursuit of my Ph.D. in Computer Engineering at what is now known as Missouri University of Science and Technology. I look forward to becoming an instructor at the collegiate level and mentoring the next generation of engineers and scientists. You may be interested to know of my amateur radio interests and involvement. Over the past year, I have reacquainted myself with the school’s radio club (WØEEE), of which I was the President in the year 2000. I am currently leading the fundraising efforts to rebuild the antenna stack on our primary tower. I also constructed a DMR repeater and placed it in service here in Rolla. Prior to my return to school, I became involved in public safety communications and continue to work as a Communications Unit Leader (COML) Instructor with the Eureka Fire Protection District. This work has me training amateur radio operators as Auxiliary Communicators to work within the incident command system when called upon by emergency management officials. I also enjoy HF contesting as time permits. Relocating after being in a career and attending graduate school full-time carry their own financial challenges. By being awarded one of your scholarships, you have lightened my financial burden which allows me to focus more on the most important aspect of school – learning. I hope one day I will be able to help students achieve their goals just as you have helped me.

Skyler Fennel KD0WHB

Skyler Fennel first became interested in electronics and technology when his great grandfather gave him his first electronic kit in 3rd grade. Skyler always loved to take things apart and attempt to figure out what was going on inside. From making a simple flashing light, he always had a deep interest in how things work down to the core. In Middle school, he started experimenting with various circuits, including audio amplifiers, high voltage transformer drivers, and even built his own laser Spirograph. His best friend as a freshman in high school got him into amateur radio after explaining propagation characteristics, and the fun of experimentation. Skyler immediately went right from Technician to Extra in 6 months, and has enjoyed the hobby ever since. In high school, Skyler became Net control of the weekly Colorado Amateur Satellite Net, and continued an assortment of DIY projects including a direct RF link between the house and Eldorado Mountain providing the AllStar link system to the Rocky Mountain Radio League, project manager of the AB0BX STEM school repeater, designed a homebrew APRS system for the Courage Classic Bicycle race and many more. He started KE0FXH at his own high school where they launched a High Altitude Balloon and became active on YouTube, producing many informative amateur radio technical videos under the channel Skyler F. Skyler was awarded the Amateur Radio News-line Young Ham of the Year in 2016. Skyler is now a junior at New Mexico School of Mining and Technology and is studying Electrical Engineering. After reviving the Tech Amateur Radio Association (KC5ORO) back at the school, he brought 50 members into the club through club fair, and led the club through many projects including a campus digital repeater with internet linking and a remote solar beacon. Community help through the radio club at New Mexico Tech included ham radio demonstrations and a foxhunt at the Boys and Girls Ranch School, and volunteering communications for the school graduation event. In the past semester, Skyler had the opportunity to intern at the NRAO Very Large Array radio telescope in the position of radio frequency interference protection and is now the president of the Socorro Amateur Radio Association.

The scholarship money really helps with my education to get through college, and I really appreciate the effort you put into the scholarship. It really means a lot to me.

Patrick Pike KJ4AXD

I would like to start by thanking you for the beneficial scholarship award that you gave me. I am excited to receive the generous award of the 10-10 Scholarship. I wish I could tell you how happy I was when I found out that I won the scholarship; let’s just say I was excited .I am beginning my junior year in pursuit of a degree in Ecological Engineering. I started my college years at a community college and I am glad I chose that route first. Due to me going to community college I feel more prepared for Auburn University. While at Auburn University, I will be taking the world of ham radio with me in my adventures through the rest college years. I passed my technician license when I was ten years old. I made it to Extra class within the next year. I enjoy field day, HF, and 6 meters. I also enjoy volunteering for events such as Dayton Hamvention where I work with Mike Buehler and others to make it a success. I also volunteer locally with the Rotary Club, my church, SGA, and the local ham radio club. Thank you again for the generous funding.