Ann Arbor high school students to maximize grant’s effectiveness

DEARBORN, Mich., June 9, 2008 — With its mission to inspire, support, and prepare young people to pursue careers in engineering-related fields, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation is used to supporting students. But its award from Google Grants^™, a program that gives free Google AdWords^™ advertising to registered 501(c)(3) organizations, is turning the tables on how the foundation broadcasts its mission. Students from Ann Arbor’s Community High School are supporting the foundation by maximizing its Google Grant.

The grant provides the SME Education Foundation with free Google AdWords advertisements alongside related search results on Google.com. The program uses the power of the Internet to help non-profit organizations achieve their goals by informing, engaging, and connecting with their constituents online. Since its inception in 2003, Google Grants has connected users with advertisements from more than 4,600 organizations worldwide.

For the foundation, the Google Grant will not only help broaden its marketing reach, but also give Community High School students unique opportunities to learn about the online advertising industry in a formal course. In this course, students act as Google advertising executives who create marketing plans intended to yield optimum search exposure and effective advertisements and click-through performance.

"We are very pleased to have been awarded the Google Grant. The prospect of $10,000 a month of in-kind Google advertising will give the foundation unparalleled visibility on one the world’s most popular information resources," said Bart Aslin, SME Education Foundation director. "The grant also will give us lasting access to the very Internet-savvy millennial generation. We thank Google for its generosity and the Community High School for its diligence. Their ongoing commitment will help the foundation prepare future engineers who ultimately help make our lives easier with their research and innovations.”

This Google Grant comes at an opportune time, as students of all ages across the United States get ready for summer. Beginning in June, the foundation will operate more than 170 Gateway Academy programs in dozens of states. For more than ten years, these fun educational programs, previously called the Science, Technology and Engineering Preview Summer Academy (STEPS), have provided hands-on, project-based experiences to introduce middle school students to the fundamentals of science, technology, engineering and math. The foundation also hopes that their grant will generate more traffic to their Gateway Academy programs, the website manufacturingiscool.com, and more interest from prospective scholarship applicants.

Google, Google AdWords and Google Grants are trademarks of Google Inc.

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About the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation:

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation is one of the nation’s leading non-profit organizations dedicated to advancing manufacturing education. Its approach is threefold: to inspire youth to pursue careers in manufacturing; to support students studying for a career in an engineering-related field; and prepare these students through its Manufacturing Education Plan grant program in colleges and technical schools. The Foundation has provided more than $21 million in grants, scholarships and awards. The Education Foundation was created by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in 1979 as a means of transforming manufacturing education in North American colleges and universities. It also has an award winning Web site to foster interest in manufacturing: www.manufacturingiscool.com. For more information on the foundation, visit www.sme.org/foundation.

About Community High School:

Community High has been the public school of choice for the students of the Ann Arbor School District since 1972. CHS is one of the oldest public magnet schools in the country and facilitates innovative learning in the classroom as well as in the community. Its open campus environment fosters and encourages self-initiated learning opportunities, where students design their own coursework, and sometimes their own courses. CHS is accredited by both the North Central Association and the University of Michigan. To receive a diploma, students must meet the graduation requirements of the AAPS Board of Education. Students earn a minimum 21 credits for graduation.

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If you have any questions or comments, please contact the SME Education Foundation by phone (313) 425-3300, e-mail foundation@sme.org, or Fax: (313) 425-3411