For the past year, I have had the incredible opportunity to pursue my passion for manufacturing by studying mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech (Atlanta); I would not be where I am today without the help of the SME Education Foundation Family Scholarship.
The SME Education Foundation's renewed and focused commitment to a diversity, equity and inclusion strategy is designed to fully integrate diversity and equity opportunities in every program, effort and initiative undertaken by the Foundation. The Foundation created and established a new Irving P. McPhail Scholarship Fund and will begin focusing its growth efforts on the nation’s Title I schools.
Rob Luce, vice president of the SME Education Foundation, was featured in a Quality Magazine article about the COVID-19 virus disrupting businesses worldwide and how training employees presents new challenges. Luce weighed in on the struggle within industry to find talent with soft skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
SME PRIME students at Hawthorne High School near Los Angeles, CA recently graduated from South Bay Workforce Investment Board’s (SBWIB) Aero-Flex Pre-Apprenticeship program. The 23 students from the schools manufacturing and engineering program will leave high school better prepared to directly enter the workforce upon graduation.
Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to transform the nature of manufacturing and engineering work. While low-skill, lower-wage jobs could be phased out, newer technologies will create new high-skill, higher-wage jobs.
The SME Education Foundation supports the Additive Manufacturing Competition and Tooling U-SME’s Additive Manufacturing Fundamentals Certification exam at the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky by providing scholarships to the high school winners of the contest.
A decades-long national bias against vocational careers continues to inform high school graduates that four-year college degrees are the only option for achieving success. Government data tells us otherwise. There are millions jobs in the United States that pay an average of $55,000 per year and don’t require a bachelor’s degree.
Our scholarship application process for 2022-23 is now open. If you are an engineering professional or educator with a STEM background, please consider volunteering to serve as a scholarship application reviewer for our online review process.
Scholarships range from $1,000 to $40,000 and can be used for tuition, books or lab/course fees.
Pratt & Whitney, Allendale Machinery Systems/Haas Factory Outlet, and Lloyd’z Motor Workz have partnered with the SME Education Foundation to make available education opportunities for students of Pine Bush High School in Pine Bush, New York.