Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
Program Educates Students About Fire Sprinklers
The American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) is pleased to announce 10 high school seniors nationwide who have won a scholarship through the association’s online scholarship program, afsascholarship.org. These national winners were randomly selected from over 37,000 students who entered to receive a one-time $2,000 AFSA scholarship payable to their respective college, university or trade school. This online scholarship contest awards ten $2,000 prizes annually. The ten national winners for 2020-2021 are:
• Joana Carreras, Maywood, Illinois;
• Landon Ellington, Weatherford, Texas;
• Josh Lawless, Chesterton, Indiana;
• Nathan Miller, Union Star, Missouri;
• Ashlynn Oyemola, Haslet, Texas;
• Victoria Piniella, White House Station, New Jersey;
• Cale Rowley, Guthrie Center, Iowa;
• Emma Shuffield, Austin, Arkansas;
• Lauren Trull-Oxendine, Grand Prairie, Texas; and
• Noah Weislo, Orchard Park, New York.
“The AFSA Board of Directors is pleased to assist today’s youth in attaining their educational goals while educating them about the life- and property-saving benefits of automatic fire sprinklers,” comments AFSA’s Region 5 Director and Chair of its Public Education & Awareness Committee Jeff Phifer, Crawford Sprinkler Co. of South Carolina in Lugoff. “This contest not only generates awareness of the fire protection industry, but it also introduces students to the careers and opportunities in an industry they might not have otherwise considered.”
To be eligible, applicants must be a current high school senior planning to attend an accredited U.S. college, university, or trade school in the coming fall. Applicants are required to read a passage about fire sprinklers—which describes their history, how they operate to save lives and property, and the types of careers that are available in the industry—and take an eight-question reading comprehension test. For each question answered correctly, the student receives one entry into a drawing for one of ten $2,000 scholarships. A total of eight entries per applicant into the drawing are possible.
Since its creation in 1996, the AFSA Scholarship Contest has sought to promote the scholarship outside of the fire sprinkler industry in the hope of reaching students who may otherwise never have recognized the importance of automatic fire protection.
In its 26th year, the AFSA scholarship continues to grow, educating over 4.5 million users through this contest and awarding over half a million dollars. AFSA scholarships are open to U.S. citizens or legal residents and are not based on financial needs. The 2021-22 contest is now open through April 1, 2022. For details on AFSA’s high school senior or “second chance” contest held each summer, visit afsascholarship.org.
