At a recent ceremony, East Tennessee State University surveying and mapping students Bryan Dean of Chuckey and Matthew Orrison of Clear Brook, Va., were named the 2011-2012 recipients of the John Foster Memorial Scholarship.

David Ingram, secretary of the Virginia Surveyors Foundation, commented, "The future of the surveying profession will be in good hands with scholars such as these two to lead us through the 21st century." Ingram and Steve Douty of the organization’s scholarship committee also presented a $30,000 check to Dr. Keith Johnson, chair of ETSU’s Department of Engineering Technology, Surveying and Digital Media, to increase the scholarship’s endowment within the ETSU Foundation.

Ingram explained, "The Virginia Surveyors Foundation has been very impressed with the way the ETSU Foundation operates and manages its holdings. Adding to the endowment was an easy decision for us." Established in 2000, the scholarship honors John Foster, a Virginia surveyor who was dedicated to the advancement of the surveying profession and surveying education. He was the first president of the Virginia Association of Surveyors and an inaugural member of the Virginia Surveyors Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering surveying education. The organization has donated $187,000 over the past 15 years to educational endeavors, including $120,000 to ETSU for the surveying and mapping program and student scholarships.

The ETSU program is the only one of its kind at an institution of higher learning in the southeastern United States.

For more information, contact Johnson at (423) 439-7813 or Ingram at (540) 828-2778.