A newly established scholarship fund for students in underrepresented communities is a crucial component of the SME Education Foundation’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, designed to fully integrate diversity and equity opportunities in every program, effort and initiative undertaken by the foundation over the next five years.
Rachel Linder, recipient of a 2019 SME Education Foundation Family Scholarship, found that engineering was an educational path to pursue when she realized that it combined her strengths and interests. Now a student at the University of Louisville studying mechanical engineering, Rachel credits support and encouragement from her parents and engaging teachers for her preparation.
Receiving the SME Education Foundation Family Scholarship has played a huge part in the life and career of Erin Manthey, an applied math instructor in the welding program at Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) in Minnesota. With the help of the scholarship, Manthey attended the University of Wisconsin-Stout, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in manufacturing engineering while minoring in math.
In the first phase of a new partnership between the Saginaw Intermediate School District (ISD) and the SME PRIME (Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education) initiative, the ISD will receive new manufacturing equipment while instructors at seven high schools receive virtual and on-site professional development.
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.
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.
Wheeling High School prepares its students to be innovative and productive leaders in STEM. The students involved in the SME PRIME initiative relate classwork to real-life by experiencing manufacturing up-close during their experience at the FABTECH student summit.
Scholarships can mean much more than financial support, says Kyle Riegel, recipient of the 2008 SME Education Foundation Family Scholarship. Kyle is a field sales engineer with Schunk Carbon Technology in Iowa. A 2008 graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, Kyle currently serves on their engineering board.
In the wake of COVID-19, educators at Pine Bush High School and Saginaw Intermediate School District (ISD) — both of which are part of SME’s PRIME (Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education) program — have taken creative approaches to learning. Pine Bush High School students returned to school virtually in early September. At Saginaw ISD in Michigan, the back-to-school experience in Fall 2020 includes a combination of remote, hybrid and face-to-face learning, including Tooling U-SME online coursework.
Career and technical education students at SME PRIME® high schools in Michigan, Illinois, and New York have experienced firsthand the importance of manufacturing to our nation and the world — and how their classroom studies and hands-on lab work relate to real-world challenges, and can even save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.