The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation named the five winners of this year’s The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation Scholarship, a program for students interested in potentially pursuing a career in the equipment finance industry. Each student will receive a scholarship of $5,000 for the 2022-2023 academic year. The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation Scholarship is part of the foundation’s academic outreach program.

The foundation scholarship program is an outgrowth of the success of the foundation’s guest lecture program, a long-standing component of its academic outreach program in which industry professionals volunteer to lecture at colleges and universities about the equipment finance industry and its possible career paths. Inaugurated in 2020, the scholarship program has been expanded to five scholarship awards this year from the three awarded annually previously.

This year’s scholarship recipients are:

• Peyton Brady, a senior at the University of Iowa majoring in finance set to graduate in December. Brady is a summer intern at GreatAmerica Financial Services working in credit analysis.
• Abigail Ferenz, a senior majoring in management information systems, technology innovation and marketing at Drexel University set to graduate in 2023. Ferenz is currently interning at Accenture.
• Ethan Jenkins, an international business and finance major set to graduate from the University of Maryland in December. Jenkins is currently a summer intern at Ally Financial.
• Charles McCauley, a senior at Towson University majoring in business and finance. A former marine, he is set to graduate in December.
• Delaney Poore, a junior at Cal State Fullerton majoring in business administration with a concentration in finance set to graduate in 2024. Poore is currently an intern at LEAF Commercial Capital.

“I’m delighted to congratulate this year’s foundation scholarship recipients and so pleased that the foundation can help support them in their academic endeavors,” Donna Yanuzzi, an ELFF  trustee and the foundation’s academic outreach committee chair, as well as senior vice president and director of equipment finance at 1^st Equipment Finance, said. “The foundation scholarship program is one of the many ways our industry is paying it forward to make a lasting impact on the future.”