Besal Fund awards scholarships to K-State architectural engineering students
MANHATTAN — Four Kansas State University architectural engineering students have been named recipients of 2023-2024 Besal Fund scholarships, garnering a total of $13,500 from the Besal Lighting Education Fund.
Awardees are Haylee Nicholas, junior in architectural engineering, Andale; Hannah Post, senior in architectural engineering, Ozawkie; Hayley Clinton, senior in architectural engineering, Nixa, Missouri; and Riley Linn, master's student in architectural engineering, Peculiar, Missouri.
The Besal Fund awards scholarships each year to deserving students with an interest in lighting design and the lighting industry in general.
Fred Hasler, professor and John W. and Dorothy M. Burke architectural engineering chair, is K-State's Besal Fund liaison and supervisor of lighting-related courses in the department.
"Each of the winners from K-State should be very proud of this accomplishment," said Hasler. "This process is extremely competitive, and only a handful of institutions are even eligible to apply. The students receiving these merit-based scholarships have bright futures."
Scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students through the Besal Fund are available only to those who attend a qualified Besal campus. K-State — and the GE Johnson Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering — is one of only five universities in the U.S. that is qualified because of its extensive offering of coursework related to lighting and lighting systems design.
The fund was established in honor of the late Robert J. Besal, whose career of more than 30 years in the lighting industry exemplified the high standards of knowledge, professionalism and service the Besal Fund aspires to encourage in today's students. It was created to provide a continuing program to improve lighting education in illuminating engineering and to find and recognize top lighting students and encourage their pursuit of lighting industry careers.
