A college scholarship program started by the Florida Chapter of the Metals Service Center Institute in 2002 has expanded throughout the United States and Canada and has so far awarded more than USD 1 million to more than 450 students, all of them the children of MSCI member company employees.
The scholarships are awarded and primarily funded by the 28 active MSCI chapters, with matching annual contributions to each chapter of up to USD 7,500 from the trade association’s national organization.
Mr M Robert Weidner III president & CEO of MSCI said that "These awards to children of member company employees demonstrate the intense sense of community, responsibility, and the philanthropic spirit of our members and chapters. Giving back has been engrained within the metals industry since its start. The scholarships have been awarded to students from every socio economic level, with parents who are employed on the shop floor, who drive trucks or who work the phones in sales."
He added that "Our scholarship winners are extraordinary young men and women who are enrolled at the undergraduate or graduate level in just about every college discipline. We are extremely proud of the hard work and generosity of our chapters to create and maintain these programs, and of our membership as a whole for continuing to fund matching grants from the institute nationally."
Each scholarship awarding chapter independently decides how much money and how many scholarships to award each year. Each chapter runs its own program of soliciting and evaluating applications. Common to all, however, is that they are awarded to children of member company employees in a blind, no-names-used procedure designed to eliminate favoritism.
Here are some details of the individual chapter programs:
1. Some chapters issue awards renewable for all four years of an undergraduate academic career. These include the Central States, Florida and Northwest chapters.
2. The largest number of scholarships awarded annually includes 15 from Cincinnati, 15 from Indiana and 10 from Mid America.
3. The largest, in terms of total dollars distributed each year, is the Florida Chapter, which in 2009 awarded five scholarships valued at USD 12,000 each.
4. Scholarship winners are extremely accomplished. A large percentage of them earned high school grade point averages of 4.0 to 5.0, counting honors and advanced placement courses. Service to the community has been a significant characteristic of award winners, including students who have organized large, successful fund drives for charities, a founder of Hispanic Youth Voice of Tampa, creation of mentorship programs, extensive participation in food banks, and so on. Winners also aspire to become doctors, engineers, medical and genetic researchers, diplomats, civil rights workers and team members at NASA.
Mr Bill Jones chairman & vice chairman of O’Neal Industries said that "We are extremely proud of this program and the way that our chapters have built their own scholarship systems in the last several years. This is one of the most tangible and immediate values of membership, it is among the most fulfilling activities of MSCI’s programs and services for its members. These young people are a tremendous credit to their families and communities, and I am delighted that we have been able to support their aspirations in this way."
