The ARRL Foundation Board of Directors has awarded the 2014 William R. Goldfarb Memorial Scholarship to Padraig Lysandrou, KC9UUS, of Bloomington, Indiana. The 17-year-old Bloomington High School South senior has been licensed since 2011, is Indiana’s Assistant Section Manager for Youth, and is in the top 10 percent of his class. Lysandrou’s May 2013 QST article “A Crazy Idea: DXpedition to Cyprus,” won the QST Cover Plaque Award for that month. Last August, Lysandrou was honored as “Young Ham of the Year“ by Amateur Radio Newsline.

“Amateur Radio has been a large part of my life since I earned my Extra at age 14,” Lysandrou said on his scholarship application. “It has been everything to me, guiding my career path, interests and education. I love to speak and educate others about ham radio.”

His is a “ham radio family.” His mother, Carolyn, is KC9URR, his father, Plato, is KC9VIL, and his sister, Helena, is KC9VIM. As a young stamp collector, Padraig got interested in ham radio through his mother, a serious shortwave listener. She would show him letters she’d received back from stations she’d heard. “I saw those, and…I got into shortwave,” he told ARRL in 2013. “And, then the interest grew bigger, and it wasn’t just about stamps anymore. And so I got interested in ham radio.”

Lysandrou is among the protégés of Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, a Bloomington High School South chemistry teacher who, at age 5, once was the youngest ham in the US. Rapp invited him to join the school’s Amateur Radio club and introduced him to the hobby. (Rapp and Dr Scott Wright, K0MD, nominated Lysandrou as Young Ham of the Year.)

Lysandrou is an ARRL member, holds an Amateur Extra ticket, and has served as president of his school’s Amateur Radio club (K9SOU). Participation in the ARRL School Club Roundup and a program on the Peter Island 3Y0X DXpedition sparked his interest in DX and led to his DXpedition to Cyprus, where he has family, and to his QST article. He has been a 4-H member for 10 years and the president of his school’s 4-H Aerospace Club. A musician, Lysandrou plays the cello and the classical guitar, and has performed on the cello at Carnegie Hall.

Because of Amateur Radio, he plans to pursue a career in electronics, engineering, and physics. He’s already been accepted to Purdue University and Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, and he is waiting to hear back from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell, and the University of Michigan. His sister is also a high school senior and college bound in the fall.

The William R. Goldfarb Memorial Scholarship is the result of a generous endowment from William Goldfarb, N2ITP (SK). Before his death in 1997, Goldfarb set up a scholarship endowment of close to $1 million in memory of his parents, Albert and Dorothy Goldfarb. It is awarded to one high school senior each year.

The award is based on an applicant’s qualifications, need, and other sources of educational funding, but it can amount to $10,000 or more. Applicants must enroll in a bachelor’s degree program related to business, computers, medicine, engineering, or science.

The Goldfarb Scholarship is a “gap” scholarship, and the award is computed annually based on each year’s education costs less other awards or scholarship grants received and any anticipated family contribution. Recipients are expected to maintain a B average.