NSCA Education Foundation Introduces New Hester Scholarship

The NSCA Education Foundation announces the establishment of the Hester Scholarship to help attract and recruit veterans to the systems integration industry.

At NSCA's 18th annual Business & Leadership Conference in February in Dallas, Texas, Mike and Kiffie Hester made a generous donation of $25,000 to the NSCA Education Foundation. This gift will be used as seed money to create a program that helps attract and recruit veterans to the systems integration industry.

Together, Mike and Kiffie Hester owned and operated Beacon Communications in Denver until their joint retirement in 2016. Mike is a long-time board member and currently serves as the immediate past president of NSCA.

One of the initial funding requests for this scholarship was made by the Electronic Systems Professional Alliance (ESPA). The funding enables ESPA and NSCA to conduct a series of outreach and recruitment events at various RecruitMilitary job fairs across the country.

RecruitMilitary events are designed to help veterans put skills and experience gained during active duty to use on the job. The events also help connect veterans to educational opportunities at colleges where they can receive training for jobs that will be a good fit within the career path they choose.

As NSCA and ESPA attend these job fairs, an NSCA member (integration firm) will be paired with an academic channel partner. This allows veterans to see and hear about the types of jobs being offered in the industry; if additional education is needed so that the veteran can pursue a job, the academic channel partner is available to explain training options.

"Both Mike and Kiffie feel strongly about this cause and have generously donated the funds to get this new program launched," says NSCA executive director and ESPA board chair Chuck Wilson. "We couldn't launch this program without the Hester Scholarship. It gave us the start we needed to promote our industry to the veteran community. We have members that share our passion for recruiting ex-military into our industry. Veterans are disciplined, professional, well organized, and process oriented from the onset. This makes onboarding much easier; a heightened attention to detail is already engrained."

Veterans will also be connected with the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) -- which brings together members of the security industry, school officials, and law enforcement to develop a coordinated approach to protecting K-12 students and staff -- as the demand for installers and technicians grows in the security, life safety, and emergency communications fields. Funding will be provided to veterans who are interested in receiving training in this type of work.