One hundred present and soon-to-be college students were chosen Tuesday to receive funding for their education courtesy of the Buick Achievers Scholarship Program. Funded by the General Motors Foundation, the program provides scholarships to students pursuing careers in STEM fields, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In all, the program awarded $2.5 million to this year’s recipients.
The program, “annually grants 100 students with up to $25,000 renewable for four years, and one additional year for those entering a qualified, five-year engineering program,” notes General Motors. Over the program’s four-year history the company says it has given 3,400 students more than $28 million in college scholarship funding.
According to General Motors, the scholarship focuses on recipients who are stars in the classroom and are noted for giving back to their communities, with “special consideration…given to students who are female, minorities, first generation college students, military veterans and military dependents.”
The 100 students awarded this year’s scholarships are a diverse bunch. General Motors notes that 61 are females, half are first generation college students, and more than 50 percent come from an ethnic background.
“By awarding more than half of their scholarships to female students, the GM Foundation encourages women to pursue a career in a traditionally male-dominated field,” said general manager and senior vice president of Scholarship America, Greg Dehn.
According to the U.S. Department of Education only 16 percent of high school students in America posses the mathematic proficiency and personal interest in pursuing a STEM career. Programs like the Buick Achievers Scholarship certainly give these students the opportunity to pursue their dreams and may even encourage other bright young minds to consider a STEM education and/or career.
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