Seven graduate students in educational administration are receiving scholarship awards to apply toward their studies.

The $2,500 scholarships support educators in a university’s graduate program who aspire to reach the superintendency. One of this year’s recipients already serves in the role.

The announcement of the recipients, some of whom are working as teachers, takes place annually at the AASA national conference, which is occurring in San Diego, Calif.

The 2024 scholarship winners are:

• Dedee Lyngstad Brown, of Tucson, Ariz. She is enrolled in a doctoral program for learning and organizational change at Baylor University's School of Education. Brown works in the Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson as preK-8 director of schools.

• Mark Comesanas, of Newark, N.J. He is pursuing an Ed.D. in educational leadership in the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education’s Mid-Career Program. Comesanas serves as executive director of Newark Opportunity Youth Network’s My Brother's Keeper Newark and earlier served as founding principal of a charter school.
  
• Tyler Francis Graff, of San Francisco, Calif. He is working on an Ed.D. in University of California Berkeley School of Education’s Leaders for Equity and Democracy program. Graff serves as an executive director of secondary education in the San Rafael City Schools in California.

• Kesha Jenkins, of Hayward, Calif. She is pursuing a master’s degree in educational administration at University of California Berkeley’s School of Education. Jenkins works as a kindergarten/1st-grade teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District.
  
• Vinicio Sebastian Quinteros, of Hamburg, N.J. He is working on a master’s degree in educational leadership at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Quinteros serves as a teacher of discipline at Barringer High School in Newark, N.J.

• Frank Schofield, of Smithfield, Utah. He is enrolled in a Ph.D. program in educational leadership at Utah State University. Schofield is superintendent of the Logan City School District in Utah, a role he has filled since 2015.

• Hilary Sloat, of Hilliard, Ohio. She is enrolled in an Ed.D. program in educational administration at The Ohio State University. Sloat is director of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Hilliard City Schools in Columbus, Ohio.

The seven awards are named after each of AASA’s previous executive directors over the past 103 years. They are as follows: 2008-2023, Daniel A. Domenech; 1994-2008, Paul D. Houston; 1985-1994, Richard D. Miller; 1971-1985, Paul B. Salmon; 1963-1971, Forrest E. Conner (executive secretary); 1956-1963, Finis E. Engleman (executive secretary); 1954-1956, Worth McClure (executive secretary); and 1921-1946, Sherwood D. Shankland (executive secretary).

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