Brooke Engstrand Scholarship Winners

Last year, we tragically lost one of our brightest stars that has ever graduated from the Conservatory. Brooke Engstrand was beloved by all, made a huge impact with the staff and her fellow CRASmates at school, and did an amazing job as an employee for Blue Microphones. Working alongside another CRAS grad Maggie O’Brien, she touched many people’s lives and was never forgotten.

In light of this unfortunate event unfolding, Blue Microphones worked in conjunction with the Conservatory to set up a scholarship to help kickstart the dreams of two of our current students. What better way to pay tribute to Brooke than to help some other bright stars just beginning their path in the audio world.

After raising over $3,000, we were looking for some quality candidates to help out with some of their tuition bills. Each candidate had to write an essay as to why they wanted to be in the audio industry, and why we should choose them for the scholarship. In the end, it came down to two students, and we couldn’t decide between the two so each were awarded a scholarship! We were able to announce, and award, these scholarships to our esteemed students during our most recent Grad Panel last Thursday night.

Jaron “Strech” Thomas was the first winner of this award. Originally from Connecticut, Strech spent a lot of time in the DJ and live sound world before he decided to step his game up and learn more about the technical aspects of things, and he couldn’t have chosen a better place to come! He has been a permanent fixture at the school since he started, and always has a great smile and kind words for anyone around.

Marcus Suesue was our second winner. Coming all the way out here from the Phoenix area, Marcus has been incredibly dedicated to the program since he started. He hasn’t missed a day of class and is continuing to work on his near perfect GPA. This scholarship came through just in time to help him get started on his upcoming internship, which will be starting in about two weeks!

Congratulations and great work! Keep making us proud, we know you will! Thank you to everybody who contributed and helped make this dream come true!