Salina Engineering Student Among Scholarship Winners

Four Kansas State University architectural engineering students, including one from Salina, have been named recipients of 2022-2023 Besal Fund scholarships, garnering a total of $23,500 from the Besal Lighting Education Fund.

According to K-State, awardees include:

  • Laken Snowdy, senior in architectural engineering, Overland Park
  • Hannah Post, senior in mechanical engineering, Ozawkie
  • Levi Johnson, senior in architectural engineering, Salina
  •  Riley Linn, senior in architectural engineering, Peculiar, Missouri

Nationally the Besal Fund awarded 16 undergraduate and graduate scholarships for the 2022-2023 school year to deserving students with interest in lighting design and the lighting industry in general.

“We are very proud of the accomplishments of these students and the recognition they have received as Besal Fund scholarship winners,” said Fred Hasler, professor and John W. and Dorothy M. Burke architectural engineering chair, as well as K-State’s Besal Fund liaison and supervisor of lighting-related courses in the department. “Being selected for this scholarship, which is very competitive, is impressive.”

Scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students through the Besal Fund are available only to those who attend a qualified Besal campus. Kansas State University — 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.