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First scholarship recipient chosen

First scholarship recipient chosen

August 15, 2000

Originally published in the August 2000 Reporting Point. This article was authored by Communications Specialist Kristina Shelton.

 

Pilot's son plans to pursue acreer in computers

 

SWAPA recently helped bring a pilot’s son one step closer to making his dreams into reality – at least the dream of graduating college and becoming a successful computer guru. That step was in the form of a college scholarship – the first scholarship to be given away from the newly established SWAPA Dependent Scholarship Fund.

 

SWAPA President John Kramer and Lana Cass, Benefits Administrator, recently awarded a $5,000 scholarship for the 2000- 2001 school year to Jon Fischer, the 18-year-old son of Richard (Dick) J. Fischer. Dick flew for Southwest Airlines for 18 years until he suffered a heart attack in July 1996 and was placed on medical leave.

 

Jon will attend the University of Texas at Dallas in the fall. Although he has a love for writing, he plans to pursue a career in the computer field, probably in hardware development with a side emphasis on programming, he said. He decided on the computer field because of the many opportunities that exist with this field.

 

“Everything’s growing so fast and the fields are opening up so fast,” Jon said.

 

 

His interest in computers was really sparked last summer after he had reconstructive jaw surgery. Because he couldn’t talk for three weeks, he used the computer a lot to write and communicate with his friends. It was then he became more interested in the field. In fact, he now prides himself on the fact he can build computers and troubleshoot just about any technical problem that arises.

 

Jon graduated this year from The Colony High School. While in school, he was a member of the National Honors Society, a marching band drill instructor, a trombone section leader of the symphonic band program, winner of the first division of the solo/ensemble contest and a teen angel. His favorite of all these activities was leading the band.

 

“The band was my number one time source. I think I spent more time in band than I did in school,” Jon said. “Not only was it great to be a part of a talented band, but being able to lead a 400-member unit was great.”

 

While in school, Jon was also well known for his writing. He won the annual school literary magazine award both his sophomore and junior year. He has written about 400 poems and is working on his fourth book.

 

Dad is not only proud of his son’s computer skills, but has been impressed with his talent for writing. “The first time I read some of his stuff I thought, ‘Wow. That came out of him, the computer nerd?’” Dick said.

 

Dick’s favorite poem, according to his son, is one he wrote a few years ago titled, “Mountain Eagle’s Flight.”

 

Although Jon has written several poems about love, he has some from a very difficult time of his life that are a bit darker. These difficult times were when as a freshman in high school he came home to learn his father had suffered a heart attack. He said although it was a very trying time for the family, his father had a positive outlook on it.

 

“He came home and said, ‘Well, at least I’ll make every one of your games from now on,” Jon said.

 

 

In his essay he was required to submit with the application, Jon said he feels he has the ability to achieve just about anything. He attributes that positive attitude to his parents, especially his dad. “He’s taught me how to do a lot of stuff. Like with my computer if I can’t figure something out, I’ll keep working on it until I do. I learned my determination from him,” Jon said.

 

And Dad is extremely proud of this determination, which he says will serve him well in college. Now he will be able to put both his talent and his knowledge of computers to use to become a successful citizen. Dick said he is so thankful to SWAPA for providing his son with this scholarship.

 

“I think it’s great,” he said. “We’re not destitute, and there’s so many scholarships out there, but we don’t qualify for them. I started a fund awhile ago, but the schools didn’t tell me the right figure.”

 

The idea for the fund came from a trip Capt. Kramer took with Eddie Lowe, a pilot who recently passed away. Capt. Kramer said he was on a trip with Lowe driving back from a wildlife refuge in New Mexico when he got the idea to set up the fund.

 

“We were driving back and talking about benefits he had gotten from the pilots’ group and I asked him what his greatest fear of being on disability was and he said, ‘Educating my kids.’,” Capt. Kramer said.

 

It was after that conversation that Capt. Kramer came to Cass with the idea, and in May 1999 it was approved by the SWAPA Board of Directors. In November, the payroll deduction program was established in which pilots may contribute to the fund out of each paycheck.

 

Currently, SWAPA is selling raffle tickets to raise money for the fund in which winners will have a fourday trip flown for them by Captains John Kramer, Greg Crum and Ken Gile. There will be three winners selected for the months of July, August, October and November.

 

Cass said the raffle ticket sales have been steadily increasing since they first announced it in May. Pilots may purchase raffle tickets from chief pilots, base coordinators or at the SWAPA office.

 

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