Allen Brooks can recall the first time he met the late Kennesaw State University alumnus John Boyko on the way to his usual fishing spot.
At the time, Boyko was a freshman business student at Kennesaw State working part time at a local bait shop, allowing the two to build a friendship over their common interests. By the time Boyko entered his junior year, he would receive an invitation to complete an internship at Kennesaw-based company ServIT, where Brooks served as president, and ultimately blossomed into whom Brooks said was the company’s “first marketing genius.”
Now, nearly three years after Boyko’s untimely passing, Brooks and KSU’s Division of University Advancement have announced a $50,000 donation to establish the John Boyko Endowed Scholarship to honor his legacy. The scholarship will be used to support students accepted into the KSU Journey Honors College who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in the College of Computing and Software Engineering (CCSE). With the 150 percent endowment matching program established by the KSU Foundation and Rosemary and John Brown earlier this year, the endowment will grow to $125,000, which will produce a $5,000 annual scholarship when fully funded.
“John was everything you would expect a KSU alumnus to be,” said Brooks, a former student at Southern Polytechnic State University, now KSU, who has been selected to become a trustee of the KSU Foundation in July. “He joined our company at the ground level and left a fingerprint on it that we still see to this day. He was a very special person to me, and our goal with this endowment is to ensure there are many like him in the future.”
Boyko, who died in November 2017 at just 33 years old, graduated from the Coles College of Business in 2007 with a marketing degree. After starting out as a warehouse employee, Boyko quickly ascended through the ranks at ServIT to become the company’s marketing coordinator. In his role, he was responsible for building hundreds of websites for his clients and is credited for creating ServIT’s company logo, which is still in use to this day. He, along with more than 30 other KSU alumni, account for nearly a third of ServIT’s workforce.
To help usher in the next generation of industry-ready graduates, the John Boyko Endowed Scholarship will be made available for students who demonstrate financial need, with donor-stated preferences for graduates of Cherokee or Cobb County high schools who work in paid internships in an industry-related position.
“We are grateful to have Allen and ServIT establish this endowed scholarship,” said CCSE Dean Jon Preston. “This is an incredible way to honor the life of a KSU alumnus, and this opportunity in John’s honor will be transformative for students across our college for many years.”
