Company News

HOUSTON, TEXAS—August 21, 2023—Centre Technologies selected their Kathy Pace Scholarship awardees. The Kathy Pace Technology scholarship is an opportunity commemorating the late Kathy Pace who believed in supporting the community and continuing education. This technology-based scholarship is meant to help students change the future of technology’s impact.  

Centre Technologies announced their Kathy Pace Scholarship award selections this past week. From over 100 applications, Yigermal (Yogi) Dalge and Kade Mertins were chosen by the Centre selection committee. The Kathy Pace Technology Scholarship honors the late Kathy Pace, who strongly believed in supporting the community. As the role of technology changes, the next generation of technology professionals need to possess the compassion and commitment to use technology as a tool to improve the world we live in. This $5,000 scholarship is awarded to two rising freshmen, undergraduate or graduate students pursuing higher education in a technology-related field. The scholarship can be used to pay for tuition and/or other school related expenses.

Additionally, the committee believes applicants should embody the spirit of encouraging and supporting others, and demonstrate care for both the people around them, and for their community. They should then produce 2 letters of recommendations, appropriate transcripts, and an essay which describes (1) what technology means to applicants and (2) how they plan to work with technology in the future.

Centre understands the ripple effect of investing in their surround communities and the impact this scholarship offers. This scholarship has created opportunities for winners to garner unique and extraordinary outcomes including Lizette Flores who went on post-graduation to work for Centre Technologies and Katelyn Trout who worked for Amazon on Alexa software before joining The Walt Disney Company's Product Engineer team. This award has additional impacts on the current awardees. 

"Besides the financial assistance, this scholarship helps me accomplish larger goals as well. I want to help younger classmen and mentor them on knowledge they mayor may not have as well as learn things from them. This scholarship will give me the opportunity to build my expertise, knowledge, and, in turn, give back to the Houston communities. There's a lack of technology, resources, and knowledge in some places, so I want to work on that and resolve the issue, bringing more resources to schools that may not have the resources or knowledge. My goal is to promote and teach the younger generations about the benefits of choosing STEM programs!" says Kade Mertins when asked on the impact this scholarship has on himself the future. 

His counterpart, Yogi Dalge, confirms these goals in his own life. 

"I hope to pay it forward to my parents that have contributed to my education and my goals of becoming a software engineer. But I also want to pay it forward to the communities that I get to be a part of. Like whenever we talk about technology, we talk about the future and technology is already changing so many lives. It's certainly changed mine so I want to contribute to that. Technology enables us to accomplish so many new and needed things. It teaches us that despite the challenges, you can overcome them; your present situation does not mean it's gonna be your your destiny, your final point. I want to show people they can continue pursuing what they're doing, and someday they will succeed," says Dalge. 

As a dedicated local MSP, Centre believes in the legacy of technology even in it's fast-paced environment. 

“Centre is passionate about making technology the best it can be, and we pride ourselves on helping the next generation contribute to that goal. The Kathy Pace Scholarship is a way for us to give back to our communities and provide the opportunity for our future tech leaders to show off their encouraging, future-ready, and innovative character. We’re excited for Yogi and Kade to continue building their skills and impacting the future of technology," says Chris Pace, CEO and Founder of Centre Technologies who is also the son of the late Kathy Pace for whom the scholarship honors. 

This is a yearly scholarship opportunity that Centre will continue in 2024.