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<\/a><\/p>\nGlenville resident Nick DeGeorgia is furthering his education, and he\u2019s getting an assist doing it.<\/p>\n
The SUNY Empire State student and adjunct professor at Hudson Valley Community College is the first recipient of The Schenectady Foundation\u2019s David J. Goyette Vocational Scholarship.<\/p>\n
The $2,500 award aims to assist students in getting a degree in the skilled building\u00a0trades and vocational education fields.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very surprised when I got the phone call,\u201d the 2004 Niskayuna High School graduate said. \u201cI am truly honored to be the first recipient.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeGeorgia, an online student with SUNY Empire State, began working toward a bachelor\u2019s degree in mathematics and technology last spring. However, it\u2019s not his first collegiate learning experience:\u00a0The 34-year-old married father of two and an Atlas Copco employee also graduated from HVCC\u2019s auto body program in 2008 and its advanced manufacturing technology program in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the modern day, education and knowledge is power,\u201d said DeGeorgia, whose expertise is in the machinist field. \u201cThe more you know and have the degree to back it up, the more you can further yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeGeorgia is following a path similar to the one Goyette had taken. Goyette, who died in December 2019 after a year-long battle with lymphoma, returned to college in his 40s and at the age of 49 graduated\u00a0from SUNY Oswego with a bachelor\u2019s degree in vocational education. Goyette\u2019s work as a heating and air\u00a0conditioning service technician included training others, and he started his career in education by teaching a\u00a0semester at HVCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like Dave\u2019s life calling, to help others, shines on through the awarding of this scholarship to Nicholas,\u201d\u00a0said Goyette\u2019s wife, Gloria Kavanah, in a press release announcing the honor bestowed on DeGeorgia. \u201cNicholas embodies the characteristics Dave lived by and for which the scholarship is awarded: kindness, integrity and a strong work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeGeorgia began working as an adjunct professor at HVCC in the fall of 2019, teaching classes in the machinery field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very rewarding when you have that moment when a student gets it,\u201d DeGeorgia said. \u201cIt is also rewarding to see the growth of students from the start of the year to the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Goyette Vocational Scholarship will be awarded annually to Schenectady County residents. Candidates are\u00a0judged on their commitment to their vocation, character references and an essay outlining their work ethic and\u00a0integrity.<\/p>\n
Since 1974, The Schenectady Foundation has awarded more than $600,000 in scholarships to students from Schenectady County. The Schenectady Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1963 to assist and\u00a0promote the welfare of Schenectady County.<\/p>\n
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Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Tue, 05 Jan 2021 13:00:06 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DeGeorgia first Goyette Scholarship winner By\u00a0Jim Schiltz\u00a0\/ The Schenectady Gazette \/ Dec. 26, 2020 Glenville resident Nick DeGeorgia is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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