Chattanooga State Community College students Michael Szemborski and Michael Kaylor were two of 21 winners awarded scholarships from the Chattanooga Technology Council (ChaTech) during June. The $22,500 in scholarships was made possible by a grant from Volkswagen Chattanooga, individual donations; support from the 2018 CxO Auction, and a contribution from Chattanooga’s DevOpsDay conference.

Kaylor was awarded $1,000. Szemborski received $1,000 and additional $500 as one of the top three students as rated by the selection committee. “The scholarships can be used to help pay their tuition and fees or refunded to help pay for other educational costs,” stated Andy Cross, ChattState financial aid scholarship coordinator.

ChaTech Scholars must be pursuing an information technology degree, maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher, and submit an essay during application. Szemborski is pursuing an A.A.S. degree in programming, while Kaylor, computer science major, plans to transfer using Tennessee Ttansfer Pathways (TTP).

According to Carla Askonas, ChaTech executive director, the scholarships serve to create a welcoming culture so students will want to start their IT and computer science careers here in Chattanooga. ChaTech’s mission is to connect the Chattanooga technology community to help drive economic growth across the region.

To find out more about ChaTech scholar opportunities through ChattState, email Savitha Pinnepalli, IT department head at savitha.pinnepalli@chattanoogastate.eduor call (423) 697-4756.