Inaugural Event Celebrates the 2020-21 ASME Scholarship Awardees

Inaugural Event Celebrates the 2020-21 ASME Scholarship Awardees
 
To honor the achievements of the ASME scholarship recipients and recognize some of this year’s featured donors, ASME held a virtual ceremony to celebrate the 2020-2021 awardees. ASME Executive Director/CEO Tom Costabile and ASME President Bryan Erler delivered the opening remarks. Previous scholarship recipients also shared their IMPACT stories on what the opportunity afforded them in their careers.
 
For the 2020-21 academic year, ASME awarded 104 scholarships to 91 ASME student members. They received $380,500 in scholarships through the ASME Foundation Scholarship Program and the ASME Auxiliary Scholarship Program.
 
More than 30 different scholarships were offered through the ASME Scholarship Program for the 2020-2021 academic year, including the Kenneth Andrew Roe Scholarship, the ASME James Truchard Scholarship, the Mary T. Drouin Memorial Scholarship, and the Carolyn & James M. Chenoweth Scholarship.
 

Weston Montgomery, a senior at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, received the Kenneth Andrew Roe Scholarship for 2020-21. A $13,000 scholarship was established in memory of Kenneth Andrew Roe a former president of ASME and chairman of the ASME Foundation. 
Montgomery is working to finish a year early with a double major, a B.S. in mechanical engineering with concentration in mechatronics, and a master’s in engineering management.
 
“With this scholarship, I can take additional graduate courses in finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), continuum mechanics, computer numerical control (CNC) machining, quality engineering, additive manufacturing, and mechanical control system design,” said Montgomery.
 
Through his involvement in ASME and exposure to different internships and school projects, he developed a passionate for the design process with special interest in power generation, product development and clean energy. “The technical aspects of the design process are just as exciting. The experience of having empathy interviews with users is quite humbling because it forces the designer to build solutions which solve the problem,” said Montgomery. His long-term goal is to pursue a career in aerospace or sustainable development.
 

Johane Bracamonte, a third-year PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University is the recipient of the ASME James Truchard Scholarship for 2020-21. Through the generosity of Dr. James J. Truchard, recipient of the Richard J. Goldstein Energy Lecture Award in 2020, donated the $10,000 honorarium to the ASME Foundation to be awarded as a scholarship to a deserving student. Dr. Truchard pioneered technologies for computer-based test systems for testing the Navy’s sonar transducers and sonar beamformers.  
This is exemplifying how our members can IMPACT the future of the mechanical engineering profession and ASME.  “The benefits of being an ASME Scholarship awardee are diverse and will influence different aspects of my life. The real impact of this award is the possibility of becoming an active member of ASME, increasing my network by participating and collaborating with professional events, and eventually contributing to the professional committees,” said Bracamonte.
 

Anna Stevenson, a sophomore at the University of Alabama, receives the $3,000 Mary Theresa Drouin Memorial Scholarship for 2020-2021. The scholarship was established by Mary Drouin’s nine siblings and other family, friends and colleagues to honor her four decades of outstanding contributions in the development of probabilistic risk assessment methods and consensus engineering standards as applied to ensure safe, effective operation of nuclear power plants worldwide.  
Stevenson was also awarded one of twenty $2,000, IGTI (International Gas Turbine Institute) Scholarships; providing scholarships to students who show promise for their future profession in the turbomachinery field.
 
With mechanical engineering deeply rooted in her military (naval aviation) family, Stevenson is following in her dad’s footsteps, with aspirations to get her doctorate in mechanical engineering and one day serve as a research engineer with the Department of Energy. “As an engineer, I will have the opportunity to develop elegant and innovative solutions to the world’s most pivotal problems and I want to use my love of math, science, and problem solving to create elegant and innovative solutions to help make our society more sustainable,” said Stevenson, who has an internship at Jordan & Skala Engineers.

Matthew P. Ingram of Winthrop Maine received the $3,000 ASME Auxiliary’s Carolyn and James M. Chenoweth Scholarship. The scholarship was created by Cindi Pool the daughter of Carloyn and James Chenoweth. Both were active members of ASME and the ASME Auxiliary.
Matthew, a student at the University of Maine, is grateful for his scholarship as it will help him be able to focus on his senior capstone project which is a valuable project to culivate the problem-solving skills needed in mechanical engieerning.
In his application, Matthew wrote, “I am motivated to enter the mechanical engineering field and make a difference in the world. I am confident I will be able to work toward becoming a professional engineer.” He plans to  ‘pay it forward’ by being able to one day fund an ASME scholarship and help students, like himself, afford the education they cherish and be part of the ASME community.
 
To view the complete list of 2020-2021 ASME scholarship winners, visit the Scholarship Winners web page on ASME.org.
For more information on the ASME Scholarship Program, visit www.asme.org/career-education/scholarships-and-grants/scholarship-and-loans. To learn how you can support the program with a gift to the ASME Foundation, go to www.asme.org/about-asme/get-involved/asme-foundation.