Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Gemini Director of Engineering Tom Toland (left) and Decorah High School senior Grant Zilka (right) go over the specifics of the scholarship awarded to Zilka on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Seth Boyes)
Decorah High School senior Grant Zilka knew some news was headed his way as he was called out of his physics class Tuesday morning. He just didn’t know if it was good news or bad. But when he was led into the school’s conference room, a smile quickly spread across his face — he knew he had won the $100,000 scholarship he was hoping would open the door for him to pursue an engineering degree at Purdue University.
The scholarship, provided by sign manufacturing company Gemini through the Frederick M and Siri J Oss Family Foundation was established as a way to give back to the broader engineering community and support students interested in entering the field, according to Tom Toland, director of engineering with Gemini. The scholarship is only available to students who intend to study engineering at one of the country’s top 50 engineering schools and who live in communities which are home to Gemini facilities — aside from Decorah, Toland said the company has sites in Minnesota, Texas, Virginia and Nevada.
Toland said many of the top candidates for the annual scholarship are from the Decorah area, which he attributed to the strength of the local school system. He said a total of only eight applicants made it through the initial screening process for this year’s scholarship and, of those eight, three were selected as finalists — one from the nearby South Winneshiek School District, another in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and Zilka.
Full article in the April 24 Decorah Leader.
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