Local A/C company owners provide $25K endowment for engineering scholarships

Local business A&P Air Conditioning (A&P) announced on April 18 that the company’s officers have established a $25,000 endowment in perpetuity for Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Engineering and Computing for first-generation students majoring in Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering.
All scholarships awarded will be matched by the State of Florida’s First-Generation Matching Grant Program.
Both A&P’s president, Adrian Gonzalez and vice president, Meyer Sarshalom are first-generation graduates of FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing. They have both been residents of Miami Lakes for over 30 years. The A&P First Generation Scholarship for Future Engineers Endowment was signed by A&P and FIU Dean John L. Volakis at the school’s 2019 Spring Senior Design Showcase where both Gonzalez and Sarshalom served as judges.
“We originally planned to support one scholarship to give a future engineer in our community the same opportunity we had to be the first generation in our families to attend college” said Sarshalom. “Then we learned that by establishing an endowment instead, our contribution would remain in perpetuity, be matched by the state, and help so many more students. We never imagined that a small, local business like ours could make this kind of impact.”
Gonzalez added, “We say my father founded A&P on his family values. Fifty years ago at the age of 14, his parents placed him on a plane alone from Cuba hoping for a better opportunity for him. Although he never attended college, he ensured that each of his four children did.
“We’re all FIU Golden Panthers. We dedicate this endowment to our dad, Ino Gonzalez and our grandparents for all their hard work and sacrifice, to our families and children that they may continue to support education and the community we call home, and to the many scholars to come through this program.”