Students benefit from generosity of Foundation donors

Judith Kearney
ASME Foundation

The ASME Foundation fulfills its mission of supporting ASME activities and promoting the profession of mechanical engineering by encouraging charitable gifts that become the base of support for many activities throughout the Society.

Scholarships are among the many ways that the Foundation promotes the mechanical engineering profession. In the last 10 years alone, nearly 400 students have received awards totaling more than $1.2 million.

Scholarship funds are set up in a variety of ways. An anonymous gift of $500,000 established an endowment to fund the ASME Foundation Scholarship in 1999. The interest earned from that fund provides 16 scholarships each year. Those scholarships are in the amount of $1,500 and are awarded to students who are pursuing mechanical engineering studies in an ABET accredited or substantially equivalent program, either domestically or internationally.

Other scholarships have been set up as memorials to engineers who were long-time members of ASME or to parents who are being honored by living children who are engineers. Some, like the fund set up by the heirs of Richard Slaybaugh, are one-time awards. Others are recurring awards, and many are set up to benefit a student with an interest in a specific field. Some special interest scholarships have been funded by a specific sector within ASME or by a corporate donation.

Recipients of ASME scholarships are enrolled in universities around the world and in a variety of programs. Stacey Dupre has an interest in fluids engineering and heat transfer. Her ASME scholarship has helped her attend LSU, where she was elected president of the LSU ASME student section and is helping that chapter thrive.

Another student honored with an ASME scholarship last year is Peter Krenzke, who is enrolled in Valparaiso University. Krenzke feels that Valparaiso is helping him develop a strong analytical and scientific background that will equip him to take part in overcoming contemporary challenges, such as developing more efficient, cleaner, and renewable energy sources; lessening the impact of industry on the environment; and finding ways to keep American manufacturing competitive in a global economy.

An ASME scholarship recipient at Milwaukee School of Engineering, Marco Brusa, is the vice president of the ASME student section. This position is helping him develop leadership skills that already are defining him as a natural leader. Brusa spent a summer in Brescia, Italy, as a mechanical engineer intern at Buffoli Transfer S.p.A.

These young people represent the future of mechanical engineering. They were among approximately 900 students who appealed to ASME for scholarship assistance last year. Of course, the need far exceeds available funding, and contributions are always welcome. For the 2005–06 academic year, the Foundation awarded a total of $193,000 in scholarships to 79 students.

More information on ASME scholarships is available on the ASME Web site, www.asme.org/Education/College/FinancialAid. To learn more about the ASME Foundation, visit http://foundation.asme.org.

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