This is a very exciting day for SADA and the Safoian family. It is with tremendous humility and pride that we are announcing the Hovig Safoian Computer Science Scholarship at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Available via the school’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, the fund will allocate tens of thousands of dollars to support the technology dreams and aspirations of CSUN students.
As some of you know, my father, Hovig, immigrated to this country in 1987. A formally educated applied mathematician and trained computer programmer, his passion has always been helping people and building things. Along with my mother, Annie Safoian, he built SADA from the ground up, encouraging us all to follow our dreams, just as he’d done when he moved to America. Hovig is a loving father who has served our company and community with integrity. The scholarship is a small way of honoring his legacy.
But the pledge is about more than that. Of late, the tech industry has been under fire – frequently, deservedly so – for its self-serving behavior. If we’re going to change that perception, and use our immense skills to serve the greater good, we’re going to need more developers, and more specifically more women developers and engineers. We need a diverse team to be trained not only in the latest technologies, but also in how technology can positively impact our society. This mindset has always been part of SADA’s culture, and we take the charter very seriously.
In CSUN, we’ve found an organization that espouses the same values. The Computer Science department at CSUN has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Its staff is highly regarded and the department offers a wide range of courses in areas such as security, networking, embedded systems, e-commerce, graphical user interfaces, object oriented software development, artificial intelligence, architecture and theory. We have several CSUN graduates at SADA, including one of our very top engineers. We want to be a natural home for CSUN Computer Science graduates over time.
In recent years, SADA has experienced its share of success. Now it is time to give back. If the scholarship can help even one person pursue their dreams, our mission has been accomplished. The Hovig Safoian scholarship will be available via the college’s list of scholarships and will be accepting applicants in early in 2020.
“The Hovig Safoian Scholarship gifted by SADA will allow our students to complete their studies in a timely manner and enter the workforce to contribute to California’s continuing leadership in innovation and technology. This generous gift will benefit not only the student but also the region and state tremendously,” says Hamid Johari, the interim dean of CSUN’s Computer Science department.
