Walter and Dorothea Gatti Scholarship Has Supported Over 70 Students
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Walter and Dorothea Gatti Scholarship. The $240,000 gift in 1999 matched by the Olin Foundation funded its first cohort of students in 2001. Today that fund is over $750,000 and 10 students were named Gatti Scholars.
Since its establishment, 70 students were funded and over 130 student-years were made possible by the Gatti Scholarship. “This fund is a great example of the ever-expanding power endowed scholarships provide,” said Gary Grant, senior vice president for development.
Florida Tech reached out to Gatti Scholarship recipients to hear what they were doing now. Their impact on the world has been impressive and diverse.
Randall Coslow, 2002 recipient, serves as the City Engineer/Deputy Director of Environmental Services for Volusia County, Fla. With nine years’ experience serving cities and counties in Central Florida, he is helping to solve all facets of water and reclamation needs. Captain Tiffany Farrar, 2013 recipient and ROTC student, has worked in law enforcement in Arizona, but was deployed overseas for the US Army in 2019, where she remains for now. Barbara Kennedy, a 2018 recipient, went on to earn Kennedy Space Center’s intern of the year and continues to serve as a civil engineer there.
Speaking on the value of this scholarship, Joshua Higginson, 2008 awardee who is now at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory supporting rocket and air-breathing propulsion development, said, “I’m grateful for my time at Florida Tech, as it has allowed me to pursue a career that I am passionate about. Mr. Gatti’s donation was incredibly helpful in alleviating some of the financial burden.”
Tyler Sloan received the award in 2013 and now serves on the advisory board for the College of Business. Tyler is the VP of Product and Marketing for a sports technology company in Manhattan. He attributes his career success to the start-up experiences he had at Florida Tech, having participated in the Student Business Incubator pitch competition and other competitive experiences.
Walter J. Gatti founded Tensor Engineering in 1958. Since then, Mr. Gatti and Tensor Engineering have played an integral part in the construction of many steel bridge structures built in the United States.
Mr. Gatti brings more than 60 years of knowledge and experience to his role as company CEO. He has personally supervised the structural steel fabrication detail and field erection drawings for over 4,000 bridges. Recognized within the industry as a leading authority, Mr. Gatti founded and has served as chairman of NSBA/AASHTO committees which oversee the standard presentation of design drawings, detail drawings, approval processes and electronic data transfer.
