Each year, money is generously donated by our GSI employees to fund the Paul Toomey IT Scholarship. The amount is then matched by our company Founder and President Paul Toomey himself. With the money being collected through the end of November 2022, we sent out the call for applications early this year. The application process was open to children of Geographic Solutions employees, as well as all Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas County seniors. This year enough money was raised to award 4 scholarships – more than ever before! Each scholarship recipient received $3,400 which they can use towards credit hours, housing, or curriculum supplies.
Criteria for the scholarship included the demonstration of above-average achievement and motivation towards advancing his/her education in a computer-related field, outstanding service to their school and the community, involvement in extracurricular events, and admirable character. Each applicant was also required to submit an essay detailing what influenced them to pursue a computer-related field of study.
This year we received 22 applications. The GSI scholarship committee reviewed these applications thoroughly and chose the 4 students that best represented the criteria and Geographic Solutions' values.
The four recipients of the 2023 Paul Toomey IT Scholarship are:
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 Arossa Adhikary – Land O'Lakes, FL Arossa is graduating from Land O’Lakes high school where she was involved in student government, Future Business Leaders of America and Kode with Klossy, a coding organization for young women and non-binary individuals. After college, Arossa plans to work for the government in cybersecurity or computer science combining her desire to serve the public with her love of technology.
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 Michael See – Palm Harbor, FL
Michael spent his high school career involved in many different clubs and organizations including founding East Lake High School’s Artificial Intelligence Club and the Drone club. Michael placed 1st in the People's Choice Awards' Robofest Online World Championship. His entry was an AI-based hand-controlled landing system for a medical delivery drone that navigates natural disasters. He plans to attend the University of Georgia’s Computer Systems Engineering program.
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 Evan Vargas – Tampa, FL
Evan was the president of the STEM club at Tampa Catholic High School and also played on the Varisty Hockey team. Additionally, he spent many hours volunteering for various organizations throughout high school and was inducted into 8 different honor societies. Evan plans to attend the University of South Florida and pursue his dream of being a robotics engineer. Evan's dad Danny Vargas Jr. works here at Geographic Solutions as a Team Lead for the WF Interfaces Team.
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 Allen Ho – Land O’Lakes, FL
Allen has an impressive background, interning for the United States Campaign for Burma and also started his own successful business, RePho, repairing smartphones, tablets and laptops. Allen plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology with hopes of starting his own sustainable consumer electronics engineering company in the future.
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Congratulations to each of the recipients! And thank you to each and every employee that donated to help make their dreams a reality!