Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
Students Learn About Fire Sprinklers
The American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) is proud to offer financial assistance and public awareness of sprinklers through its online scholarship program, AFSAscholarship.org. A total of $25,000 is awarded through this public awareness campaign to 10 lucky graduating high school seniors and five current college/trade school students as they pursue their higher education goals. 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. Now entering its 24th year, the AFSA scholarship continues to grow. Since the contest made an online presence 10 years ago, over 4.3 million users have learned about the life- and property-saving benefits of fire sprinkler systems, how they operate, myths about fire sprinkler activation, sprinkler-related legislation, careers in the field, and more.
Scholarships for Seniors For the high school senior contest, 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 10 $2,000 scholarships. A total of eight entries per applicant into the drawing are possible.
This year’s contest attracted over 169,909 unique visitors to the website. The winners were randomly selected from 70,387 students who entered to receive a one-time $2,000 AFSA scholarship payable to their respective college, university or trade school. The 10 national winners for 2019 are: Julia Ahern, San Diego, California; Rose Cross, Hoagland, Indiana; Alexandra Dagdag, Middle River, Maryland; Anna Evans, Denver, Colorado; Abigail Hershman, LeClaire, Iowa; Elor Mayan, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Travis McGregor, Kensington, Maryland; Zuri Reaves-Thomas, Snellville, Georgia; Morgan Roegner, Highlands Ranch, Colorado; and Taryn Thompson-Garner, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Most of this year’s winners were unaware of the life- and property-saving benefits of fire sprinklers before entering this contest. Talking with them afterward confirms they have been exposed to this life-safety message and hopefully will be sharing that knowledge with others.
Winner Elor Mayan didn’t “know much about this topic” when he applied for the contest. He now says that “fire sprinklers are important in preventing deaths due to fires.” Mayan plans to study nursing at the University of South Carolina – Columbia this fall.
Students Enter Online Both contests are being offered in 2018-2019. The second chance contest is currently open until August 31, 2019.
AFSA scholarships are open to U.S. citizens or legal residents and are not based on financial need. For details or to apply for either scholarship, visit afsascholarship.org.
