ASME scholarship endowment raises more than $45K for Virginia Tech engineering program

Judith Kearney
ASME Foundation

Last spring, ASME rallied in response to the tragic events that occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech on April 16 by establishing the ASME/VT Memorial Scholarship drive, created to remember those affected by the tragic events. So far, the fund has raised more than $45,000, which includes donations from ASME members, volunteers, and staff — as well as a $25,000 matching gift from the Society itself.

The effort started with a gift from ASME to the ASME Foundation with a challenge to create a lasting memorial. Word went out to every level of the Society through the ASME and The Foundation Web sites, through word of mouth, e-mails, and public announcements, asking for contributions to the memorial scholarship fund. The heartwarming response was a resounding indication of concern for the victims, their families, and VT University family touched by this tragedy — among them students and faculty who were ASME members, colleagues, and friends.

ASME President Sam Y. Zamrik, a member of the ASME Foundation Board, shows his support of the ASME/VT Memorial Scholarship by wearing the maroon Virginia Tech memorial ribbon.

Contributions have come from every level: leadership, institutes, divisions, individual members, student members, and staff. Employees of ASME participated in Jeans for Charity Days when they paid for the privilege of "dressing down" on three consecutive Fridays. Attendees at the 2007 ASME Summer Annual Meeting in Toronto contributed generously and sported maroon ribbons throughout the conference proceedings to demonstrate their participation and support. Just recently, a student section began planning a T-shirt sale on their campus with half the proceeds to be contributed to the scholarship fund, and with a challenge to other student sections to do the same.

The ASME activity has not gone unnoticed at Virginia Tech. When the news first appeared on ASME.ORG, Rob Schorry, an ASME member and Hokie parent, read about the scholarship drive and wrote to tell us how it touched him.

"As we all know, a very large percentage of the injured and dead were engineering students and professors," he wrote. "This also hits home as I am a mechanical engineer. Not only was this massacre an attack upon students, it was also an attack upon my profession. A profession that by and large seeks to lift up humanity and not to do the opposite.

"The sad fact, of course, is that the tragedy could have occurred on any campus. But Eric (Rob Schorry's son), and his friends, will go back because VT is their university, and by extension it is mine, too."

To date, the memorial scholarship has received $20,336 in donations and pledges to match the original gift from ASME of $25,000. While the campaign to raise money will continue until the anniversary of the tragedy in April 2008, the total to date of $45,336 assures that the fund will be endowed and a scholarship will be offered in perpetuity to a graduate student at Virginia Tech.

Additional contributions may increase the size of the award, or possibly make more scholarships possible. Contributions may be made online at www.foundation.asme.org/Donate.

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