Engineering scholarship promotes green jobs

By Amy Melin
Western Herald

A West Michigan architecture and engineering firm is funding a new endowed scholarship for Western Michigan University students who are interested in environmental sustainability.

The TowerPinkster Endowed Scholarship is available to students majoring in electrical or mechanical engineering. The first scholarship will likely be awarded prior to the 2009 fall semester.

“We are introducing this scholarship in hopes that it will help to encourage diversity in the field of engineering,” Mary McCormick, marketing manager at TowerPinkster said. “The WMU engineering program is already working so hard on their sustainability project, which is why we decided to offer this scholarship to Western students.”

In order to be considered for the scholarship, students must be going into their junior or senior year and have an average GPA of 3.0. The scholarship will be given to at least one student per semester. The $1,250 TowerPinkster is donating for the scholarship will be split between the chosen students.

As part of the scholarship, student recipients would be given the title “TowerPinkster Scholars” and offered an opportunity to apply for one of the TowerPinkster internships. This internship would give students hands-on experience working with professionals in the architecture and engineering field.

“This semester, we have three part-time WMU interns working for us,” McCormick said. “We have more than a few Western grads on staff here as well.”

The amount of WMU alumni employed at the firm is one of the main reasons this scholarship is being offered to WMU students. Because it is a local business, they like to hire local graduates, said Tracy Branson, associate vice president of development at WMU.

“TowerPinkster likes what we teach our engineering students here at WMU,” Branson said. “We have a good program so they like hiring our graduates.”

TowerPinkster is known for being one of the top architecture and engineering firms for sustainability matters. Last year, the United States Green Building Council gave the Kalamazoo office the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certificate. TowerPinkster is the first firm in Southwest Michigan to be honored with this award.

The LEED certificate is a third-party verification that a company is running an environmentally responsible business and helping make the community a healthy place to live and work.

TowerPinkster’s environmental sustainability goals are another reason WMU is being given this scholarship.
In 2008, the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce awarded the university the Environmental Award for its sustainability efforts and its ongoing goal to make the university more environmentally friendly.

WMU also used the LEED certificate guidelines when building and renovating many of the buildings on campus.

“WMU encourages its students to look into careers in environmental sustainability,” Branson said. “In recent years, we have gone to great lengths to make Western a ‘green campus.’”

Students who are interested in applying can pick up scholarship applications at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences office.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=1225

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 9 2008. Filed under Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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