Recipient Profiles
Undergraduate Scholarships
Laura Nguyen and Nathan Bessette
When Sidney Goldin, ChE 1930, notified Georgia Tech that he had made an estate provision for the future of the Institute, he wanted his gift to enable deserving students to attend Georgia Tech without concern for their financial need. His estate was realized in 1996, and his vision then helps to meet one of Tech's most pressing needs now—scholarships. Because of his generosity, more than 100 students each year receive the financial aid they need to pursue their Georgia Tech degrees.
W. Vernon Hassett, TE 1938, wanted to reward Georgia Tech students whose hard work had financed their education. After all, he had worked and saved for two years before starting college at the University of Georgia. He transferred to Georgia Tech in his second year, and paid for his degree in textile engineering with his earnings from the Co-op Program. It was through a combination of hard work in the classroom and in industry that Hassett learned self-discipline and financial responsibility.
Hassett's estate was realized in 2005, funding the W. V. Hassett Endowment Fund for scholarships for Georgia Tech students in their senior year who are participants in the Co-op Program, and who have demonstrated a strong commitment to provide for their educational expenses at Georgia Tech in their earlier years. Laura Nguyen and Nathan Bessette are prime examples of the kind of Tech students the Hassetts wanted to help.
Nguyen will earn her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering this year. She participated in the Co-op Program with Orbital Sciences, working on the company's hardware engineering team during the design and production stages of manufacturing; was involved in sub-assembly testing and schematic and printed circuit board design and verification; and designed and produced test fixtures. Nguyen is also a member of Phi Mu sorority and Georgia Tech's dance team. Her career interests lie in medical and defense applications of electrical engineering, as well as robotics.
Bessette will earn his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineer this year as well. He is interested in alternative energy and increasing the efficiency of energy devices, and is particularly interested in the work of Georgia Tech's Strategic Energy Institute. Long term, he may decide to become a professor. Through the Co-op Program, Bessette worked with General Motors and Panasonic Automotive Systems.
"The Hassett Scholarship has been of great benefit to me," Bessette said. "It has made it possible to reduce the amount of loans my parents have had to take out to help pay for my education." With his parents having three children to put through college, "anything I can do to remove as much burden from them as possible is very valuable to me."
"I knew when I came to Tech that I would need to participate in the [Co-op] Program to help pay the costs of attending, because otherwise it would not be possible," said Nguyen. Receiving a Hassett Scholarship has helped to ease some of the financial burden for Nguyen's last year, and it is rewarding for her to know that it is because of her diligence that she was awarded the scholarship. "It is an honor to be recognized for hard work since that is what I value the most as well. The biggest lesson Georgia Tech has given me is that being smart isn't everything - you have to put in a lot of time, effort, and hard work to be successful. Tech is not just a test of intelligence, but a test of commitment as well."
As out-of-state students, both Nguyen and Bessette have financed their education through a combination of Co-op earnings, loans, scholarships, and savings. The Hassett Scholarship has made a Georgia Tech education accessible to these exceptional, hard-working students-just what Vernon Hassett would have wanted.
