The Ennes Educational Foundation Trust has awarded five scholarships for 2021. The recipients were chosen from applications received by July 1, 2021, from the previous 12 months.
The Harold E. Ennes Scholarship, Robert D. Greenberg Scholarship, John H. Battison Founder’s Scholarship and Gino Ricciardelli Scholarship are awarded to individuals interested in continuing or beginning their education in broadcast engineering and technology. The Youth Scholarship is specifically for a graduating high school senior interested in broadcast engineering as a career. Each scholarship awarded this year is for $2,500.
This year the Harold E. Ennes Scholarship recipient is Ismail Otu, CRO, CTO. Originally from the Bronx, NY, Ismail graduated from The Broadcasting Production Technology Program at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte, NC. He served on Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society’s Vice President Committee, interned at WTVI PBS Charlotte, and earned the Most Outstanding Student Award at the Student Excellence Convocation on behalf of the CPCC’s broadcasting program. Ismail plays several critical roles during live events and concerts for CPCC’s performing arts & events facilities including sound board operator and stage/audio technician. While having extensive experience working as an audio engineer, he is devoted to becoming well-versed in other technical areas. Enthusiasm for audio fuels Ismail’s IT skill development focusing on networking technologies. He plans to attend The Cleveland Institute of Electronics and major in broadcast engineering/wireless communication electronics to pursue a career in broadcast operations.
Receiving the Robert D. Greenberg Scholarship is Michael Cassara. Michael became interested in television broadcast after becoming involved with Wilton High School’s weekly news show. From the contacts he met there and his passion to learn, he shortly became involved with Wilton Public School’s student-run broadcast team and was responsible for the production of various board meetings and school events. This eventually turned from a volunteer position to a part-time job as he took a leadership position within the team, which he used to build the capability to perform multi-camera broadcasts of the school’s various sports games. His research and efforts refined his passion towards the engineering side of television broadcast. This passion has led him to pursue a career in broadcast engineering. He is now in his sophomore year of studying computer engineering at the University of Pittsburgh to achieve that goal.
The John H. Battison SBE Founder’s Scholarship has been awarded to Zachary Cameron. Zachary is currently attending Ball State University, Muncie, IN, studying telecommunications. He has held multiple positions as both a broadcast engineer for his high school and production assistant/student broadcast engineer for RBTV. His recent achievements consist of completing an overhaul and upgrade to both his high school TV mobile production carts, rebuilding and upgrading RBTV’s Studio B control room, and purchasing and building a remote production pack for RBTV including field cameras, audio equipment and all necessary accessories. His goal is to become a broadcast engineer after graduation.
The Gino Ricciardelli Scholarship has been awarded to Christopher Gamelin. Six years ago, Christopher set a goal to work in the professional world of radio broadcasting, and was hungry to learn all he could in this career, from promotions to hardcore engineering, and this is when he met many current contacts and friends. This is where he wanted to be. He wanted to work in broadcasting, making sure these stations were operating properly, fixing equipment, and doing some production. He left iHeartradio in search of another goal, full-time work in engineering. He received that working at Entercom Communications. There, he gained basic knowledge in broadcast engineering, production, and remote broadcast set ups. He had another goal: to broaden his horizons and try TV broadcasting. He pushed forward, talked to some people and interviewed at WFSB – Channel 3 news. Four hours after his interview, he was called up and offered the job of maintenance technician for the company. He was ecstatic that he reached his goal. He never would have seen this coming five years ago. At WFSB, he has many more opportunities to grow and already has met goals of becoming a drone operator, working on remote broadcasts and expanding his electronics knowledge.
Meredith Frank received the Youth Scholarship. In high school, Meredith was known as the “go-to video producer” because of the strong relationships she formed with administrative staff while working on their video projects. Her production talents have allowed her to spend two years as the director of her school’s annual charity reality show competition, Senior Survivor. During the pandemic, Meredith was able to produce the show’s episodes from home, leading to a charity total of more than $50,000, and a record breaking $229,000 during the in-person 2021 competition. Meredith has additional live production experience as a video switcher for her church and as the lead stage manager on five school productions. She will be pursuing her passion for live TV production by moving from her small Midwest town to New York’s Hofstra University, where she will earn a degree in television production & studies. Meredith has seen the positive impact that her broadcast work can have, and will forever act with that value in her future career.
SBE President Andrea Cummis, CBT, CTO, said, “The SBE continues its focus on education through webinars, books, The SBE Mentor Program, SBE Ennes Workshops and other efforts, and the Ennes Scholarships are just one part of this education effort. As the SBE continues to encourage young people to pursue careers in broadcast and media technology, I look forward to seeing the great progress of these five engineers as they further their education goals with the assistance of the Ennes Educational Foundation Trust.”
The Harold Ennes Scholarship Fund Trust was initiated by Indianapolis Chapter 25 in 1980 in memory of Harold E. Ennes, author of many textbooks for broadcast and broadcast-related communications training and a member of the Indianapolis chapter. Ennes was a member of the SBE’s national Certification Committee and made many contributions to the early development of the Certification Program. To encourage greater growth, the Scholarship Trust was transferred by Chapter 25 to the SBE national organization to administer in 1981. The name of the Trust was changed in 1995 to the “Harold Ennes Educational Foundation Trust” to fully embrace its expanded role.
