Jacob Belser, a 17-year-old senior at Jacobs High School in Algonquin, Illinois, eagerly anticipated his involvement in the Bright Minds Student Summit that took place in early May at RAPID + TCT at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

Our Bright Minds Student Summit at EASTEC allowed high school students to get their first taste of manufacturing with keynote speakers and guided show-floor tours of exhibiting manufacturing companies.

Filling manufacturing jobs is a growing challenge across the country. Nearly 2.5 million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled in the United States by 2030. Launched in May 2023, the Edwardsburg PRIME program is an important step to help strengthen the Southwest Michigan labor force and fill future manufacturing positions.

Stratasys is funding the Foundation’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) scholarship initiative, and will provide a $20,000 award — $5,000 per year for four years.

A 19-year-old environmental engineering student at Jackson State University in Mississippi, has been able to attend school debt-free since receiving SME’s $10,000 IQAir North America Scholarship in Fall 2022.