We will be able to give several scholarships this year although, due to the continued stagnation of the stock market, not as many as in recent previous years.

The picture that we are looking at now is the possibility of two undergraduate scholarships, two master's degree scholarships, one Ph.D. scholarship and two scholarships for foreign graduate students studying at U.S. universities.

In addition to those grants, there will be scholarships for high school students through the Clarke Scholarship Fund. That fund was established to recognize departmental support of ASME student section activities.

The ASME Auxiliary and ASME Foundation award scholarship funds to academic departments. The department heads identify incoming freshmen to receive the scholarship.

It's been surprising to the people administering these scholarships that the number of applications has decreased while the amount of awarded scholarships has increased, from $30,000 a year to $36,000 for the past two years.

The number of schools distributing these funds has increased from five in the beginning to six currently. Each school receives $6,000 to distribute to incoming high school students as their departments of mechanical engineering see fit.

Now is the time for the universities that have ASME Student Sections to begin the application process to obtain these scholarships for high school students coming to their universities in the fall of 2004.

If you have a student section of ASME at your university, please consider applying for this scholarship. For more information, contact David Soukup, managing director of ASME Operations, at soukupd@asme.org.

— Ella Baldwin-Viereck
Auxiliary publicity chair

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