The AVIXA Foundation, a non-profit charitable and educational organization created by AVIXA to support the audiovisual industry, has announced the recipients of the 2018 Michael Vergauwen Scholarship: Marc Carbon, Matthew Hancock, and Rishabh Waghela.
The scholarship program was created to honor the late Michael Vergauwen's contributions to the AV industry by supporting educational opportunities for students engaged in AV-oriented college programs. Each scholarship recipient receives $5,000.
"This year has been our most competitive applicant pool in history," said Joseph Valerio, director of workforce development for AVIXA and program director of the AVIXA Foundation. "Marc, Matthew, and Rishabh have shown a strong commitment to careers in AV. We are excited to see these young professionals already so dedicated to our industry. It makes fulfilling our mission easy. Michael Vergauwen's legacy is alive and well in this year's recipients."
Scholarship winner Marc Carbon is a senior at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics with a focus on management and marketing. A fascination with innovative technology led Carbon to a position as a science teacher. He later worked for his mother's digital media consulting firm, and recently spent six weeks interning with Prowise, which creates software and hardware education solutions. His interest in AV developed from his father's role with the Global Presence Alliance. Carbon plans to pursue various training opportunities, such as CTS certification, to help spur his career as an AV professional.
Matthew Hancock is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in computer information systems at the College of Charleston. After high school, Hancock joined the United States Army as a satellite communications systems operator and worked his way into an elite Special Operations unit, where he first learned about videoconferencing systems, networking, and network security. He currently works at Cambridge International Systems designing, engineering, and implementing AV systems in government buildings. He enrolled in the computer information systems program to learn the skills to program AV solutions. Hancock recently earned his CTS and plans to pursue his CTS-D in the future.
Rishabh Waghela is enrolled in the engineering management master's program at Northeastern University in Boston. After earning a bachelor's degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Vidyalankar Institute of Technology in Mumbai, Waghela worked as an AV engineer at Crestron Electronics Asia, where he cultivated his skills and identified concepts he wanted to pursue further. The program at Northeastern University provides the opportunity to develop the technical expertise needed to manage small-to-large-scale projects and the business competence that is required in the AV industry. Waghela also works part-time as an AV technician-in-training at the university.
