RALEIGH, N.C. – The Betsy Y. Justus NCTA Founders Scholarship aims to support young women in North Carolina who are pursuing an academic and career path in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), with an emphasis on technology and engineering.

Every year, the NCTA Education Foundation honors the memory of its founding CEO by awarding a scholarship in her name. This year, the scholarship was expanded to provide two students with a $4,000 scholarship and a computer from Lenovo.

Jaclyn Adriatico of Mooresville and Katie Martin of Jackson received this year’s awards. Both students are planning to study at NC State University in Raleigh.

Adriatico plans to study computer science in college and has always had a fondness for STEM. Her high school in Mooresville offered every student in grades 4-12 a laptop for the school year. The laptop initiative is what Jaclyn said sparked her interest in STEM fields.

This summer Jaclyn attended a women’s engineering camp at NC State. This fall, she will be in a group called WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, where she will get to live with other women going into STEM fields and also develop skills and talents necessary to becoming successful. Jaclyn also is a member of the Society of Women Engineers, a group that empowers women to advance and succeed in the STEM fields, and plans to become a part of more clubs and organizations once she gets to NC State. While at NC State, Jaclyn plans to participate in multiple internships and externships, volunteer, and build her social network.

Martin attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham and plans to study engineering at NC State. She has been passionate about STEM since she first became involved through the Labs 4 Learning program at NCSSM following her 6th grade year. Her involvement in STEM skyrocketed with her acceptance to NCCSM for her junior and senior year of high school. At NCSSM, Katie took a total of five engineering classes and received a departmental award from the engineering department for her enthusiasm, passion, energy, perseverance, and lively participation in all her classes and extracurricular activities.

Her participation in STEM extended outside of class with the WISE program, FIRST Robotics Team 900, and her participation in the Google Gravity Games soapbox derby. As a part of FIRST Robotics Team 900, Katie helped design and build a robot that won the North Carolina FIRST Regional Competition, the Engineering Excellence Award at the NC Regional, and the FIRST Robotics World Championship Creativity Award. Her future plans are still largely undecided but her passion for engineering and desire to improve the world have her set on a career in an engineering field.

Betsy Justus was a remarkable businesswoman and a pioneer in public leadership and entrepreneurial growth in North Carolina.

She was the first woman Chair of the State of North Carolina Employment Security Commission from 1987 to 1990 and went on to serve as the first woman Secretary for the NC Department of Revenue from 1990 to 1993. As Secretary, she represented the state on several national committees and was responsible for enforcing state tax laws and policy. In March 1993, Betsy was the inaugural founder and President of the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association (now NCTA). Under her leadership, the association grew a membership base and public policy infrastructure that laid the foundation for the technology industry to grow and prosper in North Carolina.

In 1998, she left NCTA to work for ACS Enterprise Solutions as an SVP of Business Development. Later Betsy joined the executive team at Alphanumeric Systems, where she served as vice president and remained in that position until losing her battle with cancer in July 2011.