College supporters, students unite at the 2026 Scholarship Reception
Engineering celebrates donors who support exceptional undergraduate and graduate students with $1.8 million in scholarships.
The college’s annual scholarship reception celebrates donors who financially support University of Arizona students, reinforcing their academic success at the College of Engineering.
The University of Arizona Grand Ballroom filled with 127 eager scholarship recipients on Feb. 17 for an event honoring donors who bolster student success.
“Earning an engineering degree takes determination and resilience, and I am incredibly proud of all that you have accomplished,” Craig M. Berge Dean David W. Hahn told students before addressing donors. “Student success is supported through community, academic support, research opportunities, student clubs and experiential learning — and woven into every story tonight is the incredible generosity of our donors. We truly could not do this without you.”
The College of Engineering awarded nearly 661 undergraduate scholarships totaling $1.5 million this year, along with $300,000 in graduate scholarships.
Scholarships open doors for high achievers
Four scholarship recipients spoke after Hahn’s opening remarks, highlighting achievements across engineering disciplines.
Aerospace engineering junior Etan Grant, a Henry Farber Memorial Scholarship recipient and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics member, says scholarships give him the financial freedom to get involved on campus.
Environmental engineering senior Mahieuilani Konanui credited awards such as the da Vinci Scholarship and the Professor Richard M. Edwards Endowed Scholarship in Chemical and Environmental Engineering with helping her build connections across campus.
“Being a scholarship recipient has allowed me to be a part of so many communities,” Konanui said. Adding that, without financial burden, she was able to attend the Society of Women Engineers Conference last October to build her professional network.
Konanui also worked as a student assistant in the Níhí lab, led by chemical and environmental engineering assistant professor Cherie De Vore, where she used ion chromatography to analyze heavy metal characteristics in a liquid mixture.
For some students, scholarships inspired them to continue their education.
Engineering Student Council President and chemical engineering senior Rohini Ghosh – winner of the Clarence Wilson Scholarship and the A. & J. Elias Scholarship – said scholarships encouraged her to apply to doctoral programs.
“Through various scholarships and grants, I have been able to present posters at two AIChE annual student conferences,” she said. “And because of these experiences, this has shaped my desire to pursue a PhD.”
At the 2024 AIChE National Conference in San Diego, Ghosh took second place for her poster presentation on PFAS behavior.
Alumni invest in the future
Donors like Scott Sayles, a featured speaker at the event and the Sayles Advancement in Education Foundation representative, pay it forward to Wildcat engineers with financial backing and professional mentorship.
Sayles earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the U of A in 2000 and has spent more than 25 years building a career centered on design and construction. He volunteers with the ACEC-Arizona STEM Day events at the football stadium, the Engineering Council, the Civil and Architectural Engineering and Mechanics Alumni and Industry Council, and the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.
“I've met incredible people as an engineer and volunteer, learning both engineering and non-engineering skills that allowed me to give back scholarships and to facilitate even more future engineers,” Sayles said.
The Sayles Advancement in Education Foundation Endowed Scholarship supports undergraduate engineering students, and the Sayles Future Engineers Scholarship benefits incoming first-year students from Arizona.
“When we started the foundation in 2018, we started giving back to engineers who just need a little bit more assistance to get where they need to go, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to support them and celebrate their achievements,” he said.
Finding home with a little help
Mechanical engineering senior Molly Auer, recipient of the Benjamin W. Cowperthwait Memorial Scholarship in Engineering and the Christian Montoya Scholarship, closed the event.
'They allowed me to fully engage in my coursework, research and extracurriculars without the constant pressure of financial stress,’ says mechanical engineering senior Molly Auer on scholarships.
When Auer applied to the U of A, she planned to study statistics and data science. After comparing degree plans, she noticed her first semester differed by only one course – ENGR 102A – and decided to declare engineering despite little prior experience. Awards affirmed her choice.
“My path into engineering wasn’t exactly traditional, but in many ways, that’s what makes this community so special to me,” Auer said. “From my very first day, I felt at home in an engineering classroom. I found a place where math could be applied to real-world problems, where curiosity was encouraged, and where collaboration was essential.”
Her curiosity led her to the Arizona NASA Space Grant Consortium, where as a junior she optimized metal 3D printing techniques. Last summer, she traveled to the Georgia Institute of Technology to research perovskite solar cell optimization, which aims to improve solar power conversion efficiency.
That research background carried into her senior year, where she leads a capstone design project team developing a 3D-printed autonomous leaf cuvette – a small chamber that wraps around twigs or leaves to measure rainforest gas exchange for climate change research at Biosphere 2.
“None of this growth, or any of my personal success, would have been possible without the support systems around me, especially through these scholarships,” Auer said. “These awards didn’t just help pay for school; they gave me something far more valuable: time, focus, and peace of mind.”
