Parrish Computer Science Scholarship |
Background
In 2000, I endowed a scholarship at
the University of Texas where I did my undergraduate
work. Eleanor Moore, Director of Scholarships
at the UT Ex-Students' Association, gave me useful and practical
advice in how to establish the scholarship. Amazingly of the 160
named scholarships, this was the first for computer science students.
Laura Luthy (photo)
of the UT Computer Science Department provided me with the key insights in how to
operationalize the scholarship. The Parrish
Computer Science Scholarship is awarded each year to an
outstanding freshman in the Turing Scholars Program.
The UT CS Department selects the nominee, and the
scholarship is administered by the Texas Ex-Students' Association. |
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In 2006, Tiffany Grady,
Assistant Director of Academic Initiatives, who recently joined the Computer Science department,
accompanied Judith Quinney,
Eleanor Moore, and I for a delightful conversation and
enjoyable lunch at the authentic
Eastside Cafe.
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In 1966, I graduated from the University of Texas with honor in Mathematics before the Computer Science department
was established. In 1967, I became a life member of the UT Ex-Students' Association. In 2000, I fulfilled
a life-long dream by establishing this scholarship at UT.
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Parrish Scholarship Winners
The Parrish Computer Science Scholarship has been awarded each year of the 21st century:
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This is a photo (click to
enlarge) of Megan Beck and myself taken on
September 6, 2001 in Austin, Texas at the
University of Texas. There were about 500
recipients and donors at the banquet sponsored by
the Texas Ex-Students' Association. Since
this was the first year for the Parrish Computer
Science Scholarship, Megan
and I were seated at the front of the
ballroom in a choice table. The President
of the University of Texas made the introductory
remarks. |
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| Megan is an exceptional person who has a double major
in Plan II and Computer Science. She spent the
summer of 2001 studying in Spain. She has won a
number of other scholarships and honors:
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This is a photo (click to
enlarge) of David Yu, which I took on September 5, 2002 in Austin, Texas at the
University of Texas after the the wonderful banquet for 500 recipients and donors sponsored by
the Texas Ex-Students' Association. As usual, the President
of UT made introductory
remarks. I had the opportunity to converse with former National Security Agency
Director Bobby Inman, who is a fellow scholarship donor. |
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| David, or to use his formal name, Yongshin participated in the
International Baccalaureate program in High School and was admitted
to the Computer Science Department's newly created and accelerated program
for exceptional freshmen. Check out his blog.
He has won a number of scholarships and honors:
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This photo of Shan Wang, was taken after the
scholarship banquet of the Texas Ex-Students' Association on September
4, 2003. Shan was accepted and courted by a number of prestigious
universities like MIT and Berkeley, but fortunately selected the University
of Texas where she has already worked one summer as an intern in the
Computer Science department. Shan was born in China and came to the
U.S. when she was seven. She is fluent in Chinese and French. |
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Shan, in addition to her academic achievements, has played the piano for 12 years winning some awards. She was the Treasurer
of her class council in high school and was active in journalism. Now she has taken up sailing.
She has won a number of scholarships and honors:
Postscript dated May 20, 2006 announced by the Computer Science department: Senior Shan Wang was honored as the College of
Natural Science's sole student commencement speaker, as chosen by a special faculty committee. Shan will be continue her studies
in the fall at Stanford's PhD program in Computer Science.
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This photo of Jason Petersen, was taken with Don Parrish
at the scholarship banquet of the Texas Ex-Students' Association on September
2, 2004 in Austin, Texas.
Jason was accepted by Rice University and the University of Tulsa, but fortunately selected the University
of Texas where he has already started working as a Java and C++ developer at ARL, UT's Space and Geophysics Laboratories. |
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| At Temple High School, Jason participated in the International Baccalaureate program.
Jason is also a semi-professional musician and has won awards in both piano and violin. He was
captain of his Quiz Bowl team. Jason has competed successfully at the state level in piano, violin, German,
mathematics and computer science. He took the initiative to help establish a computer science program at his high school.
He has won a number of scholarships and honors:
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This is a photo (click to
enlarge) of Brandon Bolling, which I took on September 8, 2005 at the
University of Texas after the delightful banquet for 450 scholarship recipients and donors sponsored by
the Texas Ex-Students' Association.
Brandon was born in Texas, but moved to Colorado when he was 11 years old
in order to attend better schools. In addition to graduating in the top 1% of his class in high school,
Brandon has exceptional SAT scores: 770 in English and a perfect 800 in Math. He obtained 70 hours via
advanced placement tests achieving the top score in almost all of them.
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| Brandon was also accepted by Rice University and the Colorado School of Mines.
However, his explorative visit to UT was an eye-opener as he explained:
"At the meeting, I was extremely impressed by all that the Turing Scholars, the
computer science department, and UT
in general had to offer." After cross checking UT advantages with the other
schools, he decided on UT which he reports is ranked 7th nationally in computer science.
Brandon has won a number of scholarships and honors:
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This photo of Thomas Jack, was taken after the
Texas Ex-Students scholarship banquet on September
7, 2006. Tom chose UT over Rice and Georgetown "mainly in order to study in the
Turing scholars computer science honors program. I am very excited to begin CS research in the area of biologically
inspired computing. Neuroevolution particularly interests me, and I hope to participate in research with UT's
neural networks research group." |
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| Tom is a native of San Antionio where he attended the James Madison high school
and graduated Summa Cum Laude (top 3 in class of 698). He was also named "student of the year" in computer science.
Tom was active in the National Junior Classical League and he mastered the Latin language.
In 2005, he won first place in the Computer Science UIL
in his district and second place in his region.
Tom has won a number of scholarships and honors:
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This is a photo
of Christopher Renard taken on September 6, 2007 at the
University of Texas before the banquet for 450 scholarship recipients and donors sponsored by
the Texas Ex-Students' Association. After the banquet, Chris was
photographed with
William C. Powers, Jr., President of the University of Texas.
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Chris was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Both his parents are physicians. His mother stayed home so she could
home school Chris and his two brothers. Chris graduated from the prestigious
School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas,
ranked #1 in the nation by Newsweek again in 2007.
He has exceptional SAT scores: 780 in English and 790 in Math.
During the summers of 2006 and 2007, Chris worked full time at the UT Southwestern Medical School on
eTBlast,
a full-text similitary search for medical journal articles, grants, etc. Chris' successful participation in the
UIL CS Competitions brought him to
UT during both his junior and senior years where he had the opportunity
to discuss the Turing Program with its head, Dr. Lin.
Chris has won a number of awards and honors:
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