NATCA's 2011 President’s Scholarship Winner
Wednesday, June 01, 2011

In accordance with NATCA Standing Rule B-3, NATCA administered twenty $1,000 scholarships chosen by a lottery system. Those 20 recipients were announced approximately a month ago. It has been a long-standing tradition to pick one scholarship that best captures the spirit and intent of union activism.  That recipient will receive $2,000 for what has commonly been referred to as the “Presidential Scholarship.” Great job and congratulations Mikaela Burton (Father: Richard Burton –SJC). 

We have included the essay below:




            

As philosopher Paul Holbach noted, “Humans are machines”. In our complexities, functionalities, capabilities, we are comprised of nuts and bolts to cohesively create a persona, an identity.  As my family and I walked wide-eyed through the NATCA office in Washington D.C., I hung onto the words of Holbach with more understanding and rationale than it originally held when noted in my English class.  Each wing, room, individual worked together passionately to create the NATCA identity of achievement, fairness, and community.  Looking behind the glass windows of this respected union, I saw with each pen stroke and phone call the reasoning behind the success.  My father, Richard Burton, an Air Traffic Controller and a member of NATCA for twenty-one years, inspired my leadership ventures and appreciation of having a voice in this competitive society.  It is far too easy to take advantage of the opportunities given to us in our careers and life but it is always dedication and the willingness to sacrifice for a greater outcome which makes us successful.  The labor union, particularly NATCA, has modeled how we as individuals should contribute our intellectual and humanitarian abilities in order to expand our achievements.  As members of society, we should utilize our rights and strive to maintain these machines.
 
I’ve seen glimpses of the competences of unions during high school.  Being a part of various aspects of student government at Saratoga High, I have experienced first-hand some of the benefits of a union.  Students and I construct feedback and opinions on aspects of our educational establishment and communicate with the administration.   By creating our own machine or association, we effectively build a relationship faceted on the ideology of our future.   Although many of these adaptations may not be in effect until after graduation, our efforts will continue to flourish and benefit future pupils.   My involvement in the non-profit Valley Medical Center Foundation can also be attributed to my exposure of human capabilities at an early age.   It is quite inspiring knowing that an effort of just a few individuals can make a world of difference.  Volunteering at the foundation exemplified yet another vision of setting and reaching goals to fulfill the needs of others.  The opportunities I have manifested into a lifelong goal and commitment to leadership and communication.  Those early opportunities galvanized my involvement and are truly responsible for my aspirations to become a producer in the media field.  The field is dependent upon triumphs of compromise and collaboration and would feed my incessant craving for working in one of those machines.   I believe I have seized many chances to model the union’s identity and goals within my own world and am working towards expanding upon team building.  My past experience mimic what I believe unions such as NATCA encourage, having a voice and using it to better ourselves and our society, making myself a viable candidate for this scholarship. 


Click here to read the full list of 2011 winners.