Promoting the future of engineering: The ASME Foundation

Judith Kearney
ASME Foundation

One of the most important activities of the ASME Foundation is to actively promote the profession of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering. The Foundation is committed to promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering worldwide. Nurturing and advancing students and young engineers, who represent the future of engineering, is among the Foundation's priorities.

The Foundation Grants Program promotes the future of engineering. Over the years, the Foundation has funded programs that nurture and encourage both students and early career engineers. Programs funded include WISE, which places college students as interns in Washington, D.C., in the summer; Engineering Student and Early Career Engineer Development, which offers training programs; and pre-college instruction materials, promoting science and technology even prior to college studies. Grant awards for the coming year will be announced at the 2007 Congress.

The Foundation also offers scholarships each year to both undergraduate and graduate college students, domestic and international. Setting up a scholarship can be done on a one-time basis, or with an endowment that creates a lasting legacy helping students far into the future.

An example of a new scholarship that has just been established is the Allen Rhodes Memorial Scholarship, which the Foundation created with a starter gift from the International Petroleum Technology Institute (IPTI). The scholarship will benefit an engineering student who has an interest in the petroleum industry.

Rhodes, the former president of ASME who died in August, had a keen interest in mentoring and encouraging students and young engineers. To top off an exemplary career in engineering, he was not only a mentor to small businesses and entrepreneurs, he was also an adjunct professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston.

To contribute to the Allen Rhodes Memorial Scholarship, go to http://foundation.asme.org/Donate. For more information, or to set up a scholarship within the ASME Foundation, contact Judith Kearney by e-mail at kearneyj@asme.org.

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