2012-13 PES Scholars Announced

November 2012

228 PES Scholarship Recipients Selected

There is no shortage of talent and drive among undergraduate students majoring in electrical engineering across the country, if only you know where to look.  This year, the IEEE Power & Energy Society Scholarship Plus Initiative is proud to announce the distribution of scholarships to 228 students at 100 universities across the United States.

The IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative provides multi-year scholarships and career experience opportunities to qualifying U.S. 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.

“The IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative is one way we are helping support the next generation of power leaders,” said Wanda Reder, Co-Chair of the scholarship. “These are exceptional young men and women who are excited about power and the opportunities in the field.”

“Executives across the power and energy industries share a concern for the pipeline of talent entering the power engineering workforce especially as more and more of the Baby Boomers who built today’s power system to its present strength prepare to retire,” stated Wanda Reder.  Over the next decade, almost 62% of the industry has the potential to retire or leave for other reasons.

With this being the second year of the program, the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiativehas supported 265 students attending 109 universities, including Ivy League colleges, flagship state universities and prestigious engineering colleges across the country. The program has supported scholarships worth $642,000 and has raised $4.1 million in cash and pledges from donors for the program, nearing the half-way point of its $10 million goal.

“Being named a PES Scholar is an incredible honor. I am lucky in the fact that I always knew what I wanted to do with my life, but as a female going into an engineering field and being raised by a single mother, I found it challenging. This scholarship has taken away stress about tuition and provided me with the opportunity to contact mentors who can give me rewarding advice. I am proud to represent myself, my university, my company, and my family as a PES Scholar,” stated a female PES Scholar.

Two industry leaders have each showed their support of the program through their respective $1 million donations; S&C Foundation, which is affiliated with S&C Electric Company, as well as Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. Other prominent supporters of the Fund interested in solving power engineering workforce problems include The Grainger Foundation, Alstom, Doble Engineering, Powell Industries, Cooper Power Systems, Southern California Edison, ISO New England, Autodesk, PSE&G, Ulteig, Westinghouse, MidAmerican Energy Foundation, NSTAR, PJM Interconnection and GE Foundation.

To view a full list of 2012 PES Scholarship recipients, please visit the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative website.    You can also see the location of  PES Scholars via the interactive map.

• Arizona State University (8)
• Drexel University (15)
• Georgia Institute of Technology (5)
• Kansas State University  (5)
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (8)
• South Dakota State University (6)
• State University of New York at Buffalo (13)
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (7)
• University of Texas at Austin (6)
• University of Washington (7)
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute (11)