Jetrader - Fall 2014 - 56

ISTAT foundation

Scholarship Giving
Continues to Climb
Peter Huijbers,
Chairman
ISTAT Foundation
Scholarship Committee
This edition of the ISTAT Foundation
update is dedicated to the scholarship
committee and will provide an update on
various developments with regard to people and programs within the committee.
After five years at the helm, Dana
Lockhart has stepped down from the role
as chairman of the scholarship committee.
We thank Dana for the guidance and leadership he has provided to the committee.
He ensured that it was well-staffed and
introduced improvements to the scholarship process. Dana will remain on the
scholarship committee, so we will continue
to tap into his experience. I took over the
role as chairman in May this year.
The ISTAT Scholarship Committee welcomes Andy LaStella. Andy will be replacing Ken Perich, who decided to devote his
time to the foundation's grants committee.
We thank Ken very much for all his efforts
in support of the scholarship committee.
While he is leaving this committee, we
know he will remain an active supporter
of the foundation.
At ISTAT Americas, three new platinum
scholarship donors were announced, which
have significantly increased the level of
financial support that the foundation can
give to students who are passionate about
aviation but in need of a little tailwind.

With these three additional donors, we
now have the following named scholarships: four annual scholarships supported
by Jon Batchelor, two by Steve Udvar-Hazy,
four by Mrs. Diane Ballweg, one by Omni
Air International, one in remembrance of
Hafthor Hafsteinsson, one in remembrance
of Mike Metcalf, and one in remembrance
of Gil Speed.
In regard to the annual scholarships, we
obtained 52 applications from 15 nationalities, and the committee has finished
its evaluation of these applications. We
are pleased to report that a total of 32
scholarships were granted, of which 14
are named scholarships totaling just over
$110,000 and 19 are non-named scholarships totaling $186,000. This is an increase
of more than 20 percent compared to 2013.
A second round of awards will be made later
in the year to allocate scholarships for the
remaining funds of $34,000.
The process of accepting and reviewing applications was overhauled in a subcommittee led by Murrae Ross-Eskell and
took place from 13 December until end
of May. Part of this process is working
with a new IT tool developed by Warren
Willits that has significantly helped to
make life easier both for universities to
enter submissions online, but also for the
committee to evaluate the submissions
online. Furthermore, 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. We also
optimized the communication between
the universities and ISTAT headquarters,
the application and financial aid form, the
scholarship amounts, and the number of

56 The official publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

universities being contacted. As a result
of using the new process, some additional
minor amendments will be made so that
the process will run smoothly in 2015.
This will include finding ways to have
greater committee and member outreach
to universities going forward. It would
be fantastic to have ISTAT members (and
that specifically includes ISTAT scholarship recipients!) act as "ambassadors"
to universities and schools, preferably
alumni, therefore being able to make the
connection effectively and ensure the universities and schools really understand
ISTAT. This should result in an even stronger applicant pool for our scholarships.
On a final note, the scholarship committee will be looking to widen its horizons
further in emerging markets. GECAS has
kindly proposed an African aviation scholarship program for aviation students from
Africa attending universities in Africa.
A subcommittee has been established to
identify and contact African universities
to explain the ISTAT Foundation program
and help them identify deserving candidates for these scholarships. We hope to
expand this emerging markets model to
other geographies in the future.
One of our recent ISTAT scholars, Hoi Yiu
Chan, who studies in Sydney, participated
in ISTAT Asia in May in Hong Kong and was
thrilled to see what the ISTAT community
can do. She followed that experience with
an internship in Hong Kong and hopes to
find a career within the ISTAT community
in the future. Hoi is a great example of how
foundation support can make a difference
in the lives of young people who have a
genuine interest in commercial aviation.
She has already started to spread the ISTAT
word within her own community.

Jetrader - Fall 2014

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