FMA Foundation Scholarships

Announcing 10 new $500

"GO-Brennan" Scholarships

Foundation reaches
kids via YouTube

With your support, the FMA Foundation has established ten scholarships of $500 each to students seeking careers in manufacturing. The new GO-Brennan Scholarships are a spin-off of FMA's sponsoring 16-year-old stock car driver Brennan Palmiter's 2008 racing season. Brennan is proficient in four types of welding, a skill he uses to motivate other young people to consider the industrial trades.

To kick off the program, Brennan appears in a video on YouTube inviting high school, trade school, and college students to apply for the scholarships. The application process is quite untraditional: students will create and post their own videos explaining why they want to be in manufacturing, what career they seek, and where they want to attend school. They are also encouraged to include footage of themselves building or welding with metal.

With the GO-Brennan Scholarship offering, the FMA Foundation will reach young people in the social space where they live. The scholarship offerings are expected to drive thousands of views. (A recent report says 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watch an average of three hours of video each month.) Applicants' video testimonials of why they want careers in manufacturing will be seen by their peers, and the effect will be "viral."

View Brennan's YouTube video.

Download the Go-Brennan Scholarship Rules (pdf)

Learn more about Brennan Palmiter.

Instructions for placing this video on your company's website.

Traditional Scholarships

Since 1990, the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Foundation has awarded scholarships annually to students in courses of study that may lead to careers in manufacturing.

Eligibility

To apply, you must be:

• A full-time student with a minimum 3.0 GPA (for a college scholarship) or a 2.0 GPA (for a trade/technical school scholarship),
  enrolled in an engineering or manufacturing-related course of study, or a trade or technical program, that may lead to a career in manufacturing; or
• a member of FMA, TPA, or OPC
• the employee of a member company; or
• the child of a member; or
• the child of a member company's employee.

College scholarships for non-members are $2,500 per school year and college scholarships for members are $5,000 per school year. Trade school scholarships up to $2,000 per school year require membership.

Individuals applying for membership-based scholarships must have a Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA) or Tube and Pipe Association, International (TPA) Basic Membership; or the Outside Processors Council (OPC), or be the child of a member who has a Basic Membership, or an employee or child of an employee who has an Advantage or AdvantagePlus Membership, or have a Student Membership to be eligible. Students may apply for membership at the time of application. Annual FMA student memberships cost $25.

To apply, you must submit a completed online application form and other materials by the application deadline. To be eligible for consideration, all materials must arrive at the FMA Foundation prior to 5 p.m. on April 4, 2008.

Eligibility Guidelines (PDF download)

Scholarship winners may be offered a three-day internship with the FMA Foundation to attend FABTECH International / AWS Welding Show being planned for Las Vegas, October 6-8, 2008. The all-expense-paid internship is valued at more than $1,500 and includes travel, hotel, meals, technical educational sessions, and free admission to FABTECH. Interns chosen will be introduced to the latest technology and meet industry leaders at the largest metal forming and fabricating show in North America.

How to Reach Us

For additional information regarding scholarship opportunities or ways to support FMA Foundation, please contact the Foundation directly at (815) 381-1338, foundation@fmanet.org.