Received: 2009
"Dear
Bill, the Scholarship Committee, & all our Friends at TCI:
I
wanted to send you my sincere thanks for your generosity in
awarding me the TCI Valedictorian Scholarship Award at the 87th
annual conference in Chattanooga last week. It is through your
kindness and selflessness that blind individuals like me can
lead productive and happy lives and achieve their dreams.
You
heard tidbits of my story and how I lost my eyesight, but allow
me to provide a little more information to help you understand
who you are helping through your generous scholarship. I was
sighted until 1998 when I endured a horrific airplane crash
as a passenger that forever changed my life. On June 1, 1998,
I was a 26-year-old pilot with 1,600 flight hours - flying everyday,
living my dream in aviation, was one week away from interviewing
with USAirways for a pilot position, with a bright future ahead
of me. The pilot of our aircraft that day and the negligence
that caused my accident took away my future as a pilot - everything
I worked so hard for. I was dead-on-arrival at the hospital
when airlifted from the crash site, in a coma for 20 days, the
doctors found my left eye behind my cheek bone, my right eye
sustained severe optic nerve damage and a fully developed catarac,
my nose was torn off, the roof of my mouth had to be re-attached,
my jaw was broken in 4 places, my left side was paralized, both
lungs were collapsed, I had 14 broken bones - 9 of which were
in my face, a badly broken right leg and ankle that now contains
a metal rod and several screws, and a brain injury I wouldn't
wish on my worst enemy. My face was re-built with bone from
my hip and titanium plates. Since the accident, I take 1500mg
of anti-seizure medicine a day to prevent seizures (my last
was in 2004). I have no memory of the last six months of 1998.
My life as I knew it was over and I had to make some difficult
life decisions.
The
biggest decision I made was to go on with life and not give
up. I was not going to sit in my parents' home and feel sorry
for myself. I began a long road of recovery and rehabilitation.
Through love and support of family and friends and an unwavering
strong Christian faith, I overcame the worst time in my life.
In
2000, I became the first and only blind Advanced Ground Instructor
(AGI) I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the
University of North Carolina. I was born in Kannapolis, North
Carolina and lived there before moving to Charlotte in 2001
to obtain my undergraduate degree.
In
2005, I moved with my guide dog to Daytona Beach, Florida to
pursue my Graduate degree. In 2007, I became the first blind
graduate of Embry-Riddle Areonautical University in their 84-year
history. Aviation is a sight-dominated industry and no other
blind person ever attended ERAU, the world's largest flight
school. I proudly earned my Master of Science in Aeronautics
degree with specializations in Aviation Safety and Aviation
Operations - and I did so with a perfect 4.0 GPA. I am now half-way
complete with my PhD in Business Administration with a specialization
in Aeronautical Safety. My current GPA is 3.96. I hope that
you can see that I am deeply devoted to my education and I work
extremely hard every day in my studies. I hope that you are
happy that I was selected to receive this very special scholarship
and I want to make you all proud. My goal for the future is
to obtain a full time position in the aviation industry. Possibly
with the FAA, the NTSB, NASA - somewhere that I can contribute
to aviation safety and show people how the blind can do what
sighted people can do...just differently!
Thank
you again from the bottom of my heart. Without the kindness
and generosity of folks like you to help me, I could not continue
my education. My sole income until I become employed is $599/month
Social Security Disability. Your scholarship will be applied
towards my tuition expense in my PhD program.
Thank
you allowing me to pursue my dreams and may God richly bless
you as He has blessed me! Nancy, Jet and I thoroughly enjoyed
meeting you all in Chattanooga and I hope our paths cross again
soon!"
Barry
Hyde and Jet (& Nancy)
Ph.D. Candidate
Received:
2009
"Five
years ago this summer I received my first TCI scholarship and
invitation to the annual TCI conference. After leaving TCI conference
in Houston in 2005, I knew I started a long and rewarding relationship
with TCI. At that time I realized that the TCI scholarship is
so much more than a check for school.
TCI
has offered me a tremendous amount of professional support.
I have been included in the annual conferences five times (2004-2008)
and had access to TCI's discussion f orums, weekly transportation
news updates, and mentoring program. Intellectually and financially,
TCI has supported me in gaining the knowledge in the area of
supply chain management and logistics that prepared me for the
rest of my life. TCI has been investing in my future, and in
future of many other TCI scholarship recipients like me.
Getting
involved with TCI and its extensive international transportation
business network was one of the best things that c ould ever
happen to me. Thank you."
Antonia
Kozarova
Graduate Student
MS in Supply Chain Management
Eli
Broad College of Business
Michigan State University
Received:
2009
"The
TCI Scholarship is not offered through my university nor it
is publicized through the regular scholarship listings students
regularly use. It is, however, readily accessible through Internet
- if one searches the right thing. What difference does that
make? All of it, and here's why.
When I first found out about the TCI Scholarship, I was quite
close to the point of dropping out of university for the reason
of not having enough means. I was a low income single mom with
straight A+ marks in engineering - an ideal candidate for many
of my university's and national scholarships, as well as government
financial loans - all of which, with one exception, I have failed
to receive after three years of applying for them (as of Summer
of 2008) Why, I am not sure, but it is the result that matters.
After losing faith in the official, university-promoted ways
to finance for my studies, I had to turn to my only other option:
the private scholarships offered by non-government organizations.
TCI is one of those organizations. In their application, they
mean what they say and one does not need to search for hidden
agendas. They say that they want to support students in the
field of transportation - and this is precisely what they do.
As a result, their funds go to those students that need it the
most, the ones who have, for one reason or another, been turned
backs on.
What did the scholarship do for me? I don't need big words to
describe it, because it is self-evident. It paid my entire Fall
2008 tuition.It allowed me to stay in school. It gave me the
much-needed refueling to continue fighting for my degree. It
supported my faith that I am doing the right thing. It allowed
me to meet many wonderful people, all in my field. It gave me
a mentor in transportation. In sum, it worked!
Today, I am proud to say that I have been much more successful
in my quest for finding financing for my 4th year of university.
It is not a stretch to say that this happened because I was
supported at the right time, by the right organization.
Now that I stated all the things that the TCI scholarship was
for me, it is time to say what it was not. It was not extra
money to pay for a skiing trip at Christmas time. It was not
an extra monthly payment for a new ride. It was not spent on
beer and parties. It did not buy new shoes and purses so that
I can look cool at the University. None of the scholarships
should be used like that, but unfortunately some are. TCI's
scholarship is not.
I cannot stress enough how impressed I am with the fact that
the scholarship committee seems to be making the most honest
effort to support the right people, and to put those money to
its best use."
Elena
Zabolotny
Engineering Assistant
SK Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure
Engineering Standards Branch
Received:
2009
"Receiving
one of the TCI Scholarship has provided me with opportunities
to meet and network with dedicated, extraordinary transportation
professionals. My TCI mentor - Henri Duhot - and everybody I
met during the TCI conferences have shared invaluable practical
experiences with me. I can't trade what I learned and what I
am still learning today."
Thanks
TCI!
Burcu
B. Keskin, Ph.D.
Information Systems, Statistics and Management
Science
College of Commerce and Business Administration
The University of Alabama
