EGIA Announces HVAC HERO Scholarship Recipients

SACRAMENTO, Calif., October 11, 2023 – The EGIA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to alleviate the labor shortage in the trades, along with its student-focused division AlwaysInDemand.com, announced the names of 18 recipients of the 2023 HVAC HERO Scholarship. The applicants were selected based on need, academic merit, and career goals in order to tear down financial barriers that plague some of the best and brightest young people looking to get into the industry across the country.

Each recipient will receive $2500 to be paid towards their tuition and other costs of attending an HVAC technical program at a technical institution, junior college or other accredited program. Plus, brand new for this year’s recipients, is a year of access to Interplay Learning technical training, ESCO Institute’s HVACR Learning Network, and EGIA’s Contractor University.

“The EGIA Foundation is proud to be able to support 18 of the brightest young minds in their pursuit to join the home services workforce, who are helping to create a shift back to trades as a first-choice career path,” said Bruce Matulich, EGIA Foundation Chairman. “As we all know, a workforce shortage has been impacting our

industry for decades. But the EGIA Foundation, in partnership with the schools we work with and the passionate young students studying there – plus our partners at Interplay Learning, ESCO Group and Contractor University – are actively working toward reversing that and creating positive foundational changes for decades to come.”

The 2023-24 class of the EGIA Foundation’s HVAC HERO Scholarship is the first to receive additional training resources from three additional partner organizations to supplement each student’s own technical program. Interplay Learning specializes in virtual technical training, utilizing VR headsets and other devices to deliver their learning catalog of hundreds of HVAC and home services training courses; ESCO Group and its HVACR Learning Network is likewise renowned as an industry leader when it comes to technician training and preparedness; and Contractor University powered by EGIA is the industry’s leading provider of non-technical, business development education for home services contractors.

This year also includes recipients of two special awards, which were supported by partner organizations of the EGIA Foundation. Dylan Whipple, of Demorest, GA, is the winner of the Business Modification Group Scholarship, funded in part with a special contribution from Patrick Lange and Business Modification Group.

Dante Carter, of Palmdale, CA, is the recipient of the GoGreen Scholarship, awarded through a special partnership with GoGreen Financing, an energy efficiency financing program backed by the State of California.

You can find more information about the HVAC HERO Scholarship by visiting EGIAFoundation.org, the home of all EGIA Foundation initiatives helping to connect industry stakeholders and promote the trades as a first-choice career path. The full list of scholarship and eligibility requirements for the HVAC HERO Scholarship program can be viewed by visiting AlwaysInDemand.com/apply. Applications are open now for the 2024 HVAC HERO Scholarship to support students who will become the next generation of qualified workers in the home services trades. About the EGIA Foundation The EGIA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to expanding the benefits the public receives from the home services industry through education, research and the development of the next generation of qualified workers.

Learn more about the EGIA Foundation at its website, EGIAFoundation.org, or its student-targeted web portal, AlwaysInDemand.com.