The Hampton Roads Chapter of the Vertical Flight Society each year typically awards three scholarships to High School Seniors in the Chapter area. These awards honor the memories and deeds of Robert Powell, Edward ‘Ed’ Austin, and Christopher Gavora. This year, the HRC chapter has chosen to award five highly qualified students who are pursuing 4-year STEM degrees. The awardees for this year’s VFS-HRC scholarships are:
Emily Paul, the daughter of Julia and Mark Paul, from Blacksburg, Virginia.
Isabelle Chao, the daughter of Jeff and Julie Chao, from Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Ian Lindo, the son of Michelle Lindo, from Chesapeake, Virginia.
Cailyn Gregory, the daughter of Kristen and Matthew Gregory, from Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Ryan Dereix, the son of John and Angela Dereix, from Williamsburg, Virginia.
Each of these students have shown amazing diligence to their academic pursuits, exceptional performance in sports or civic outreach, and received excellent letters of recommendations. We are proud to award these scholarships to such deserving individuals.
The Robert Powell Scholarship
The Robert Powell Scholarship was established to honor the long-time treasurer of the Hampton Roads Chapter whose stewardship of the chapter’s financial assets originally enabled the chapter’s STEM outreach program, including its scholarship fund.
The Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship
This Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship was established to honor Ed’s many years as a chapter board member in various positions from treasurer to education director. In his retirement, Ed continued to support the chapter through staffing multiple events, encouraged the public outreach of our chapter by maintaining our website, and was a huge and continued proponent of our STEM outreach program including the scholarship program.
The Christopher Gavora Scholarship
The Christopher Gavora Scholarship was established to honor the son of COL William Gavora, former Commander of the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate. Chris was killed in a tragic high school baseball practice accident shortly after his family relocated from Hampton Roads to Texas.
