Are you a former SME PRIME student? Did you receive an SME Education Foundation Scholarship? We want to hear your story. As a brand ambassador, you have the chance to make an impression and help recruit new students into PRIME or inform post-secondary students about scholarship opportunities. Share your story with them and a make a difference.
Created by SME in 1979, the SME Education Foundation has provided more than $33 million since 1980 in grants, scholarships and awards in the U.S. and Canada and supported student outreach programs through its partnerships with corporations, foundations, organizations and individual donors.
The SME Education Foundation administers scholarships on behalf of major corporations in addition to awarding scholarships from our endowed funds.
In 2018, we awarded $608,100 to 243 students across the country, with awards ranging from $1,000 to $40,000.
In 2019, we awarded $550,000 to 222 students across the country, with awards ranging from $1,000 to $40,000.
Students from Kouts High School explored career opportunities within the skilled trades at FABTECH. The students left the conference and event with a deeper understanding of manufacturing and how it all comes together at the end.
Scholarship Success Stories | SMEEF All Scholarship Success Stories
Jeremy Kaszycki used his ambition, tenacity and a two-year SME Education Foundation scholarship to help change his life, transforming him from a high school student undecided about his future to an assembly process engineer at Magna International, a Tier One automotive supplier.
Valerie Freeman, a manufacturing and robotics pathway teacher at Park High School, will join the SME Education Foundation Board of Directors in 2021. Park High School in Racine Unified School District joined the SME PRIME school network in 2017. Freeman was instrumental in utilizing SME PRIME to install new curriculum, training to teach students important skills like how to program a robotic arm and remodeling the classroom for a more effective learning environment.
Receiving an SME Education Foundation Family Scholarship in 2018 meant a lot to Emily Redekopp, a mechanical engineering student who’s in her junior year at South Dakota State University. Engineering is in Redekopp’s family — her father is a mechanical engineer. But she has also always had a great interest in STEM subjects, which led her to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition as a high school student.