DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Andrew Stowe and Kailey Turpening have been selected as the winners of the 2025-26 Steve & Vicky Ridder Scholarship. Stowe and Turpening were selected from a group of current Embry-Riddle student-athletes who submitted applications and were interviewed by a committee comprised of ERAU faculty and staff.
 
A commitment to academic achievement, campus and community involvement, personal holistic growth and a drive to excel in sport exemplifies the spirit of Steve and Vicky Ridder and the scholarship that bears their names. The scholarship recognizes student-athletes who set a high standard in all areas of their collegiate experience.
 
Stowe is heading into his senior season with the Embry-Riddle men's cross country team. One of the top 10 10k runners in program history, Stowe is a two-time All-Sunshine State Conference and NCAA II All-Region selection. He was named to the SSC All-Championship team in 2022 and 2023 and qualified for the NCAA II National Championships in 2023.
 
Stowe has been named to the SSC Commissioner's Honor Roll and the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team three times and earned Peach Belt Conference Presidential Honor Roll accolades twice. An engineering physics major with a 3.247 GPA, he was also the recipient of the Eagles of Excellence Scholarship. He has been part of a research team that has secured multiple research grants, conducted experiments exploring water-based propulsion for small satellites and was selected to participate in a Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the University of Central Florida. He has also been actively involved in Launch, a student-led Christian Club at Embry-Riddle, where he stepped into a leadership role.
 
"Andrew is an outstanding student and athlete who has shown dedication to constant improvement," Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach Mike Rosolino said. "He has embraced every challenge before him and come out on top in of all of them. He truly cares about other people and inspires them to be better every day. He is mature beyond his years and has been a great influence on his peers. He is a true joy to coach."
 
Turpening is also going into her senior year at Embry-Riddle. Hailing from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Turpening earned the starting point guard role on the women's basketball team as a sophomore, starting in all 30 games, and bounced back from a mid-season injury in 2024-25 to start in 21 of her 25 appearances. She set the program's single-game record for assists (13) and led the league in total assists (131) and assists per game (5.3) in 2024-25, which helped the Eagles to their first Sunshine State Conference regular season and tournament titles.
 
Turpening boasts a 3.96 GPA in computational mathematics and has also started the accelerated MBA program at Embry-Riddle. She has been named to the SSC Commissioner's Honor Roll three times and was a 2023-24 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District selection. Turpening is also active on campus and in the Daytona Beach Community. She is the vice president of Future Business Leaders of America and received the Miss FBLA award and the Student Involvement Award for Academic Excellence through FBLA. She is an ambassador for the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, was the finance executive for the Villa Racing Motorsport Development Program and is a regular volunteer with the Halifax Humane Society.
 
"In all my years coaching, I have never had a player who is more invested in her teammates and more committed to personal growth as a student, person and player than Kailey," ERAU Women's Basketball Head Coach Lisa Wilson said. "She has made a massive impact in our program in her three years here and I know she will continue to do so her senior year and leave her legacy in our successful program."