CETA Student Receives Mayor's Scholar Award

Wednesday evening, September 24, four University of Hartford students were honored at the 2008 Hartford Scholars Dinner. Hartford Scholars provides half-tuition scholarships to qualified high-school graduates from the city of Hartford to attend the University. One of the students honored is Phillip Jackson, a CETA electronic engineering technology major with a minor in audio engineering technology who has earned an Associate’s in computer engineering technology. Phillip will graduate this academic year.

At a dinner held Wednesday to recognize the students, Phillip received the Mayor’s Scholar Award, created by JCJ Architecture and presented to Hartford Scholars program juniors or seniors who demonstrate a commitment to both academics and involvement in the University community and to community service outside the University. Two other Hartford Scholars, Irmarie Rios, a junior psychology major in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Aja Wilson, a junior jazz studies major in The Hartt School, also received the Mayor’s Scholar Award.

A fourth student, Marva Williams, a junior management major in the Barney School of Business received the Northeast Utilities Scholar Award. That award is given annually to a junior or senior Hartford Scholars student who demonstrates outstanding academic achievement, a clear commitment to the community, and clear career potential as an intern at Northeast Utilities.

Phillip is a Jamaican native who has lived in Hartford for the last four and a half years. He participates in the INROADS program, which develops and places talented minority youth in business and industry to prepare them for corporate and community leadership. Through INROADS, Phillip interned at Carrier, a United Technologies Corporation company, for the last two years and was recently offered a full-time position with them (which he has accepted). In addition, Phillip performs community service as a member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and at the Seabury Retirement Community in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

Among the speakers at the dinner, which is held to raise funds for the scholarship program, was Arturo Arroyo, a graduate of CETA’s undergraduate Architecture program in 2003 and of CETA’s graduate Architecture program in 2008 and now a designer at JCJ Architecture. Arturo is a first-generation American who was the first person in his family to go to college, a dream made possible with the help of the Hartford Scholars program.

CETA congratulates Phillip on his achievements and the Mayor’s Scholar Award.