Chris Custer Scholarship recipient Stephen Chambers plans to become a transportation engineer and work in urban planning. (Photo by Bill Roa)

When Chris Custer enrolled at Georgia Perimeter College, he wasn’t confident he could succeed in college. He was a 25-year-old who had dropped out of high school and earned a GED. As he had suspected, Custer found that college classes were tough, but the GPC engineering major worked hard and stuck with it. He eventually applied for and received the Professor Girijia Honkan Engineering Textbook Scholarship.

“The scholarship was just the confidence boost I needed to realize that I could become anything I wanted to be,” Custer said.

Custer says that without the encouragement of professors at GPC, he never would have been able to transfer to Georgia Institute of Technology and graduate with high honors in 2010. He majored in aerospace engineering and now works for a firm in Huntsville, Ala.

“I didn’t think I would end up going to college at all,” Custer said. “I was really happy when I was accepted to GPC, because it was the foundation I needed to achieve my ultimate dream of becoming a simulation engineer. Now, I want to help others achieve their dreams.”

Custer is giving back through his own scholarship at Georgia Perimeter College. The Chris Custer Computer Science and Engineering Scholarship awards $1,000 annually to a nontraditional student majoring in computer science or engineering.

“It’s tough when you are supporting yourself financially and trying to attend college,” Custer said. “I want to help nontraditional students reach their goal of getting an education and starting a new phase of their lives.”

This year, Custer’s scholarship is allowing GPC student Stephen Chambers to focus on school instead of working full time to finance his education. Chambers, who is majoring in engineering, plans to finish his GPC studies in December 2015 and transfer to Georgia Tech. His goal is to become a transportation engineer and eventually go into urban planning.

“I was in the Marines for four years, and I’ve been to many different places and have seen what works and what does not with regards to transportation,” says Chambers. “I’m inspired by cities that are focused on the pedestrian. Ultimately, I would like to help make the world a more livable place and less dependent on automobiles.”