Air Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration student earns $10,000 scholarship
A student at Robeson Community College received the gift of a lifetime – a $10,000 scholarship to be used in her pursuit of a degree in Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration.
Noelia Mojarro Pevia, a graduate of South View high school in Hope Mills, was awarded the scholarship by the North Carolina Healthcare Engineering Association.
Winning the scholarship, Noelia says left her a little speechless.
“Well, it kind of made me feel a little emotional and overwhelmed,” she said on being chosen.
Noelia was presented the scholarship during the NCHEA conference held in Wilmington this month. She and other students from RCC were invited to attend the convention.”
“It was a very good experience because while I was there, we got to network with like different companies and talk to people from the HVAC side of healthcare and people through other companies,” stated Noelia. “So, it was an amazing experience … they showed a lot of hospitality and understanding.”
“The North Carolina Healthcare Engineering Association Scholarship was basically a scholarship promoting educational engineering through healthcare…I could totally see myself working for a hospital doing HVAC work and kind of being in the healthcare industry helping them because patients need quality air, so that’s what we’re there for,” Noelia said.
In her scholarship application, Noelia wrote, “I am interested in the healthcare engineering field because people ́s lives matter. Treatment is important to patients and it goes hand in hand with the quality of that facility. Depending on what condition the patient is diagnosed with they need for the inside of their room to be a certain temperature. Inspections of systems need to be performed routinely. If something was to fail we would need to get it repaired because lives depend on it… Healthcare touches me because people everyday risk their own health and life to ensure others are taken care of. Without healthcare where would we be at?”
She ended her essay with “The best tool doesn’t come from Lowe ́s or Home Depot, the best tool is your brain and how well you use that tool will open doors you didn’t even know were there.”
What does she plan on doing with all the money she was awarded?
“Some of it, I’m going to save for when I do get out in the field. Some of it I’m going to use for tools, because of our trade requires a lot of tools and they’re not really cheap,” stated Noelia. “I also hope to continue my education and maybe even go a lot further than HVAC and learn more about the business side.”
Noelia was the only one that was awarded a scholarship from the organization, and it was the first time that Robeson Community College had been invited to participate.
“Alex Hartwell, associate vice president and regional marketing leader for the health and wellness market segment, reached out to me and he and I talked a few times about what they were trying to do, stated Patrick Jacques, program director of the industrial programs at RCC and the apprenticeship coordinator. “He said something about a scholarship and I invited him onto campus back in March. We did a meeting in the student center, we had probably about 30 or 40 students from the industrial, mechatronics, welding, electrical and the air conditioning, heating and refrigeration program show up.”
Upon attending the meeting, Noelia says “I thought it was like fascinating because I never really thought about going into healthcare field until I heard them come to our school.”
“Everyone had an opportunity to talk with them about what they wanted for their application process,” stated Jacques. “Noelia was the one who was awarded the scholarship.”
“She’s awesome and she had an awesome instructor,” Timothy Bryant chimed in, as he spoke about his student, Noelia. Bryant is the lead instructor for the air conditioning, heating, and refrigeration program at RCC.
Noelia says that Bryant is one of the reasons she chose to attend RCC.
“Well, I went to RCC to check out the programs and I actually met Mr. Tim Bryant and he was telling me about the program and it was basically him breaking everything down and like actually sitting there and talking with me. It made me want to join,” Noelia said. “The community sense I felt just talking to him helped me to know that RCC was a wonderful school that helps you, it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with, you know, other things – going to school can be challenging, but the teachers are very understanding, and it’s just a great school to be at.”
“The partnership with NCHEA is a great opportunity for our program and also for the departments that participated,” Bryant stated.
As for going into Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration, Noelia says “I decided to go into the HVAC field because I love working with my hands. It’s not the same problem every time … there’s like different troubleshooting behind it so, it’s not the same as sitting behind a desk.”
With big hopes and dreams, Noelia wants to work for a company for a few years before venturing out and starting her own business.
“I want have my own company van, business cards, clients, and maybe get to the point where somebody’s working under me,” Noelia said.
Grateful for the opportunity, Noelia says “I want to thank NCHEA for the scholarship and I would also like to thank Alex Harwell for being there at the conference, for showing me all the vendors and everything… They didn’t just turn us loose and say here go, you know, they took us through and made sure that we got to talk to all the right people, which I think was a big help.”
