An AASA award program created more than 75 years ago will recognize seven top-quality graduate students in educational leadership during AASA’s National Conference on Education in New Orleans. 

The AASA Educational Administration Scholarship, first issued in 1949, provides recognition and financial assistance to outstanding graduate students in school administration who intend to make the school superintendency a career. AASA selects recipients on the basis of their experience and excellence in school administration, personal essays and recommendations from university faculty.  

Each recipient receives a $2,500 scholarship given in honor of seven of AASA’s former executive directors: Sherwood D. Shankland, Worth McClure, Finis E. Engleman, Forrest E. Connor, Paul B. Salmon, Richard D. Miller and Paul D. Houston. 

The 2025 scholarship recipients are as follows. 

• Norma G. Garcia is the director of the multi-language department at Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District in Harlingen, Texas. She is pursuing her superintendent certification at the University of Texas Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas. 

• Casey Ngo-Miller is assistant superintendent for student services with Newton Public Schools in Newton, Mass. She is pursuing her Ed.D. at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.  

• Nelson L. Render is executive officer of secondary schools with Bibb County School District in Macon, Ga. He is pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership with a concentration on advanced leadership at Georgia State University. 

• Lashon Sanford is regional director (principal supervisor) in Region South of Los Angeles Unified School District. She is pursuing a doctorate degree in educational leadership at Azusa Pacific University.  

• Arman Sidhu is an education policy resident based in Chandler, Ariz., with ExcelinEd and the founder of iCubed Learning, a nonprofit microschool in Tempe, Ariz. He is pursuing an Ed.D. in leadership and innovation at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation. 

• Adina Thea is the director of elementary language learning and fine arts at Highline Public Schools in Burien, Wash. She is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Washington.  

• Jesse Yeuk-Hay Tang is serving as an intern with Deanne Galdston, superintendent of Watertown Public Schools in Watertown, Mass., in 2024-25 and will be a doctoral resident with Adrienne Battle, superintendent of Metro Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee in 2025-26. He is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he is pursuing his Ed.L.D. 

(Jay Goldman is editor-in-chief of Conference Daily Online and the editor of AASA’s School Administrator magazine.)