June 2014

The IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative provides multi-year scholarships and career experience opportunities to qualifying U.S. & Canadian electrical engineering undergraduate students. As long as the scholar continues to meet renewal standards, he or she will receive up to three years of funding — US$2,000 the first year, $2,000 the second year and $3,000 the third year — interspersed with up to two years of valuable, hands-on career experience.   Since 2011, 549 scholarships have been distributed to 380 students within the USA and Canada.

Applications being accepted – 30 June deadline
Just a reminder, the deadline to submit an application is 30 June. To date, we have had over 1,200 students from 199 Universities in the USA and 18 Universities in Canada create a PES Scholarship Plus account for the 2014/15 application.  Please refer first year, second year and third year students to www.ee-scholarship.org to learn more and begin their application.

Recent Events

• International Conference of Doble Clients – We were very happy to have been able to attend the International Conference of Doble Clients in Boston, MA (6 – 11 April).    Thanks you to Doble Engineering for inviting and allowing us to attend the event.
• IEEE PES Transmission & Distribution Conference & Exposition – We had an excellent time in Chicago attending the 2014 IEEE PES Transmission & Distribution Conference and Exposition.   We met a lot of people who are interested in the program and who understand that the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative is having an impact in building the pipeline of qualified power and energy engineers.   During the conference, 13 PES Scholarship recipients were able to meet financial supporters of the program.

Student Industry & Faculty Luncheon and Job Fair – IEEE PES General Meeting – 30 July 2014
Looking for opportunities to connect with top engineering students throughout the US, Canada, and possibly the world? Your organization is invited to participate in the Student Industry Faculty Luncheon and Job Fair at the upcoming 2014 IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) General Meeting, 27-31 July 2014 in the Washington DC Metro Area.   Sponsorship of a luncheon table ($1,000) also permits participation in the job fair for students. Why would an organization want to do this?

• Connect with top students. Increasing awareness of your organization and its career opportunities will be a win-win for the students and your organization. All the students are PES members and many of them are graduate students presenting posters or papers at the General Meeting. More than 225 students are expected to participate in the job fair.
• Advertise your organization and its support of students! Organizations participating in the luncheon and job fair will be listed on the PES General Meeting website and acknowledged during the luncheon!
• Easy to participate.  The job fair set-up is simple – mainly just a literature table. Recruiters do not have to attend – PES members attending the General Meeting can be the organization’s representatives. The engineering students at the General Meeting like talking with practicing engineers, too.
• Service to the industry as a whole. The industry is facing an exodus of retiring engineers while needing engineers educated in new competencies for the modern grid. Interactions with students at the luncheon and job fair will help the students get excited about and committed to power and energy engineering careers.
• Encourage professionalism. This is an opportunity to encourage students to see the value of continuing to advance their professionalism throughout their careers through PES membership.

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Thank you for your Support

Since 2011, Murty  P. Bhavaraju has generously donated to the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative Fund in a very unique way.  He has made donations and has had them matched by his current and previous employers. Murty notes “The statistics on potential retirement of engineers, like me, and the need for new power engineers are alarming.  The initiative to award scholarships and provide career opportunities to encourage young students power engineers needs support from individuals like me and from the industry that ultimately benefits.”

We are pleased to welcome Dominion as the newest addition to our distinguished list of corporate, foundation and organization supporters. Additionally, Doble Engineering and Henkels & McCoy have recently renewed its support for the Initiative.  Both of these donations will enable us to reach our goal to provide 250 scholarships this year.

Each contribution is vital to the success of the Initiative. In order to continue to educate and empower the next generation of power and energy engineers, your help is needed. Please consider making an individual gift to the PES Scholarship Plus Fund. If you work for a matching gift company, your contribution could double or even triple in value.

Individuals and companies in the USA may donate to the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative by visiting our PES Scholarship Plus Initiative website.

Individuals and companies in Canada can provide support for the program through the IEEE PES Canadian Scholarship Fund which is managed by the IEEE Canadian Foundation (ICF). The ICF, is registered in Canada as a charitable organization associated with IEEE Canada, awards special grants to new and innovative projects within Canada that seek to apply technology for the benefit of humanity.  For additional information and how to donate in Canada visit the IEEE Canadian Foundation Web site.

Program Expansion

The IEEE PES Governing Board has made a commitment to expand this initiative to other parts of the world.  If you have comments or would like to be involved in this process please send us an email.