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 interspersed with up to two years of valuable, hands-on career experience.

2015 Application is Open

We are now accepting applications from undergraduate students in the US & Canada for the PES Scholarship Plus Initiative. Since 2011, 733 scholarships have been distributed to 466 students within the USA and Canada. We would love to have a recipient from each US State and all Canadian Provinces in 2015. The deadline to submit an application is 30 June 2015.

Receive Updates on the PES Scholarship Plus Initiative via Twitter @ieeepesscholars

Thanks to your support, the Initiative has raised over US$6 million in cash & pledges. In 2014, we received over US$1M in contributions from organizations and individuals. These gifts are having an impact and energizing today’s students to become tomorrow’s power and energy engineers.

You are encouraged to join us by giving back to the industry and “pay it forward” by donating to the Initiative. Your donation will educate and inspire the next generation of power and energy engineers. As the only program of this magnitude in the country, we hope that you will find this a worthy initiative to attach your name to.

We would like to thank everybody for support of the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative in 2014. These gifts are helping to energize today’s students to become tomorrow’s power and energy engineers.

The Ohio State University – Major – Electrical and Computer Engineering, Minor: Humanitarian Engineering, Graduation Year: Spring 2017.

I plan to specialize in power and am actively involved in several engineering service clubs. I never want to stop using my specialized skills as an engineer to help people.

Why did you choose to study engineering and the power engineering field?

My father always told me, “If you want to save a life become a doctor. If you want to save the world become an engineer.” On trips to El Salvador and Guatemala, I saw the state of the power grid there and the enormous number of people without safe and reliable access to electricity. I then resolved to return to Central America with my degree in Electrical Engineering to fix the power grid and provide electricity to the people there.

What do you love about the power engineering field?   What excites you about being involved in the PE field?

I love the potential that the power engineering field has for improving the world and serving others. I am excited to be involved in the PE field when I see the lack of safe and reliable access in other countries and know that as a power engineer I will one day be able to contribute to fixing that problem. Electricity is something that US citizens take for granted, but is much need and not readily available across the globe.

How has been selected as a PES Scholar impacted you?

With the death of my father in 2011, having three children in college became a huge financial burden on my family. Then my brother and I were both selected as IEEE PES Scholars. These scholarships have enormously impacted my family and me. The IEEE PES Scholarship and John W. Estey Scholarship that I received will allow me to graduate with my degree in Electrical Engineering without fear of an insurmountable pile of college debt. I can achieve my dreams of becoming a power engineer at a highly ranked university without burdening my family or hindering my future.

Please consider making a gift that will help scholars like Mary. You may be able to double or triple the amount of your gift to the Initiative by using your employer’s Matching Gift Program. Make your gift online today to the IEEE Foundation or IEEE Canada Foundation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Career Experiences for PES Scholars

Getting students to participate in career experience opportunities is fundamental to the success of the Initiative. The objective of the career experience program is to expand the number of available career experience opportunities for students, particularly by companies that may not have been offering them in the past, to provide an efficient way for companies to supplement their own career experience programs, and to encourage companies to increase their efforts to build the pipeline of students interested in power engineering careers.

If your company has an internship program, please visit PES Careers. PES Careers is uniquely designed to help students find a power engineering job after graduation (or career experiences while a student), and to help employers efficiently find the best candidates for those positions. IEEE PES offers PES Careers without charge as a service to students and their future employers, and to help address emerging engineering workforce challenges.

2015 Student Industry Faculty Luncheon & Job Fair

Preparing students for power and energy engineering careers, and connecting top quality students with potential employers are driving objectives for the Student Industry Faculty Luncheon with Job Fair for Students at the IEEE PES General Meeting which will be held at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, 26-30 July 2015 in Denver, CO. The job fair provides a forum for employers and students who share a common interest in the power and energy industry to meet and discuss career opportunities. The format of the job fair is designed to enable one-to-one conversations between students and company engineers.

Any company sponsoring a table at the luncheon may participate in the job fair. These sponsorships make this student program possible and show that the sponsoring companies care about students. The cost to sponsor a luncheon table is $1,000. Platinum, Gold, and Silver Supporters of the General Meeting also may have luncheon and literature tables at the job fair without additional cost.

Visit the PES General Meeting Website for more information.