October 28, 2009
Two win prestigious aviation business scholarships
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Two students in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s aviation programs are recipients of prestigious aviation business scholarships.
Shannon W. Roth and Laurel G. Mabry, seniors in aviation management, earned scholarships from the National Business Aviation Association last week.
Roth is one of six recipients of the organization’s Lawrence Ginocchio Aviation Scholarship.
According to the organization, the scholarship honors the late Lawrence Ginocchio for his “outstanding personal contribution to business aviation.”
Roth, the daughter of J. Kevin Roth, of Carbondale, formerly of Springfield, has a private pilot’s license with an instrument rating and more than 200 hours total flight time. Roth is a member of the SIUC Flying Salukis and scored as part of a navigation team in last week’s National Intercollegiate Flying Association Region VIII championships. Roth is also president of SIU Women in Aviation, a registered student organization, and co-chairs the upcoming Aviation Management Society’s Career Fair.
Receiving the Ginocchio Scholarship is a huge accomplishment, said David A. NewMyer, chair of SIUC’s Department of Aviation Management and Flight.
“She is a very serious student and is very involved in student aviation groups,” he said.
Mabry was one of five recipients of the Janice K. Barden Aviation Scholarship, which supports students seeking to advance their professional development in the business aviation industry. Janice K. Barden founded Aviation Personnel International. Mabry, who also holds a private pilot’s license, is the daughter of Monte and Jennifer Mabry of Anchorage, Alaska. Mabry is also dual major in elementary education.
Mabry “is a hard-working student who has an excellent work ethic,” NewMyer said.
About 12 to 15 percent of students in SIUC’s aviation flight program are females, and the percentage is a bit higher in aviation management, NewMyer said.
“There are few programs that have more women in them than we do,” he said. “This shows how competitive we are on a national basis and how super-competitive these particular students had to be to overcome the odds to win.”
The National Business Aviation Association serves more than 8,000 member companies promoting aviation interests of organizations utilizing business aircraft in the United States and worldwide. The organization annually awards scholarships to undergraduate students studying aviation-related curriculum at NBAA and University Aviation Association member institutions.