The Society of Broadcast Engineers has announced that the Ennes Educational Foundation Trust has awarded five scholarships for 2025 to students interested in pursuing careers in broadcast engineering. The recipients were chosen from applications received by July 1, 2025, from the previous 12 months.
“The SBE has an ongoing focus on education, and the Ennes Scholarships are yet another piece of our overall education efforts," SBE President Kevin Trueblood, CBRE, CBNT, said. "The SBE continues to encourage young people to pursue careers in broadcast and media technology. The SBE and I look forward to seeing the great progress of these budding engineers as they further their education goals with the assistance of the Ennes Educational Foundation Trust.”
The Harold E. Ennes Scholarship, Robert D. Greenberg Scholarship, John H. Battison Founder’s Scholarship and Gino Ricciardelli Scholarship are awarded to individuals interested in continuing or beginning their education in broadcast engineering and technology. The Youth Scholarship is specifically for a graduating high school senior interested in broadcast engineering as a career. Each scholarship awarded this year is for $3,000, the group reported.
The SBE described the five recipients as follows:
- The Harold E. Ennes Scholarship recipient is Lee Cusack from Boxford, MA. They are an audio/radio major at Hofstra University, who hopes to one day be a chief engineer at a radio station in Boston. Lee first discovered their passion for broadcast engineering when they did some troubleshooting work with a Comrex Liveshot at 96.3 WJOP-LP. At Hofstra University, Lee is the technical director of 88.7 FM, WRHU, working with the chief engineer to keep the station functional 24/7. Lee’s favorite piece of equipment is the Sony Anycast Touch AWS-750.
- Receiving the Robert D. Greenberg Scholarship is Maximillian Vokoun, CBT, CPT, CBNT, of Gilbert, AZ. He is a student at Mesa Community College studying electrical engineering. His current roles include being a broadcast engineer at KTVK/KPHO, and the head of broadcasting at Bamboo Productions LLC, a broadcast company that he and other people his age started to provide freelance work for local companies and high schools. A lot of his experience so far is thanks to his time at Mesa Community College, where he used to work as an AV technician, learning the basics of terminating, soldering, and troubleshooting systems. This scholarship has granted him the opportunity to continue his education at his old workplace and start of his career, Mesa Community College. When he is finished with college he hopes to be able to continue freelancing at every major stadium/arena in Arizona.
- The John H. Battison SBE Founder’s Scholarship has been awarded to Nayab Warach, an electronics engineering student at Texas A&M University. He will graduate in 2027. He currently serves as general manager of KANM Student Radio, Texas A&M’s fully student-run internet radio station. Previously, he led a major infrastructure modernization project and now continues to support the technical side of the operations. KANM recently received a construction permit for an LPFM station, which plans to launch by the end of 2025. He is also a licensed amateur radio operator (KI5YBE) and an active member of Texas A&M’s amateur radio club, W5AC. In his work with KANM, he has collaborated with the engineering staff at KAMU-FM, the university’s NPR affiliate, gaining experience in practical broadcast operations and regulatory compliance. These experiences have led him towards a career in broadcast consulting. He is particularly interested in providing technical and regulatory services for broadcasters.
- The Gino Ricciardelli Scholarship has been awarded to Maddox Murray, from Benton, AR, who graduated from Benton High School in May 2025 and now attends the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, studying electronics engineering. His interest in electronics began by servicing vintage hi-fi receivers, not long after meeting his current boss, Jay Brentlinger, owner of the Arkansas Rocks Radio Network. Murray has worked for the network since May 2024 as an apprentice broadcast engineer, initially servicing legacy audio processors, setting up studio equipment, and gaining hands-on experience with the systems within the studio. His experience now includes work at transmitter sites.
- Shawn Ray received the Youth Scholarship. From Cypress, TX, he is a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in video and media design. Shawn has served as a media engineer for TSTV (Texas Student Television), where he managed the transition to a fully HD production workflow. He has also volunteered as an A/V technician for community events and spent a summer interning with the engineering department at a local PBS affiliate, KLRU-TV. After graduation, Shawn plans to pursue a career in broadcast systems integration, with the goal of designing and building next-generation production facilities for national sports networks.
The Harold Ennes Scholarship Fund Trust was initiated by Indianapolis Chapter 25 in 1980 in memory of Harold E. Ennes, author of many textbooks for broadcast and broadcast-related communications training and a member of the Indianapolis chapter. Ennes was a member of the SBE’s national Certification Committee and made many contributions to the early development of the Certification Program. To encourage greater growth, the Scholarship Trust was transferred by Chapter 25 to the SBE national organization to administer in 1981. The name of the Trust was changed in 1995 to the “Harold Ennes Educational Foundation Trust” to fully embrace its expanded role, the SBE reported.
