Scholarship Recipients Thrive in Engineering

Dawson Durr, a Trinity University senior, is looking forward to graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in engineering science. The Native of Murphy, Texas, plans to pursue a career as an engineer in roadway/transportation and expressed his happiness as being a recipient of an ASME scholarship. 

“When I got the email saying, ‘Check your scholarship portal. You received something.’ I’m like, oh, cool,” he explained. “Then I open it up and see that [the scholarship was] the Kenneth Andrew Rowe [Scholarship].”

He immediately jumped out of his chair and ran to tell his mother and father the good news. Durr, just one student out of 139 who were named as ASME 2025–2026 Scholarship Awardees, called his $13,000 scholarship, “a game changer.”

Helping other students

Winner of an ASME Ansys Inc. Scholarship is Chicago native Joshua Spicer. A junior mechanical engineering student at North Carolina AT&T State University, he explained his original dream was to be a dermatologist. “But being raised by a single mother, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to afford medical school,” he said.

In his sophomore year of high school it was his mother who put Spicer in his school’s engineering program. “Little did I know, her doing that was the start of my future career,” he said. “When it was time to apply for colleges and pick a major, I knew instantly it had to be in a field of engineering. I picked mechanical engineering because it is the broadest engineering field and I can use that degree to work in most aspects of engineering.”

Despite his decision, Spicer understood that the study of engineering can be scary at times. Because of this first-hand knowledge of the difficulty that comes with studying mechanical engineering, one project that made an impact with him is when he helped organize and run a hands-on introductory workshop for ASME where the goal was to make engineering feel less intimidating for underclassmen. 

Spicer took the lead in planning the activity—making sure it was interactive and useful. He came to understand after the event, when he stayed behind to help, that for many students asking questions in a technical space is never easy. The result of his work was that some of the students “ended up coming back to future ASME events,” he said. 

Section challenge

Having students seek out ASME events is a challenge for any student section, explained Roberto Montiel, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Georgia (UGA). Last year he served as one of the event coordinators for his school’s ASME Student Section. “I really love how UGA is filled with clubs,” he said. “It’s very much a tight-knit community.”

ASME allows students to meet a lot of people—a great way to network, Montiel explained. And, along with other school projects, “gives you exposure to real-world engineering,” he said. The Valdosta, Ga., native explained that projects offer ways to attain skills.

The UGA ASME student section’s projects, including the Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC), are good examples, Montiel said. This project is NASA-funded and offers students “a lot of hands-on involvement, which is something that they’re not always getting from a classroom environment,” he said. “That teamwork and technical experience is really good for resumes and great to cover in interviews.”

Giving back to the community is another key part of ASME section work. As the president of Trinity’s student section, Durr coordinates service projects with the Texas Ramp Project in San Antonio. The group is a non-profit, working across the state, where volunteers get together on Saturday mornings and go out and build wheelchair ramps for people who can’t afford to have one professionally built.

Durr’s section began this work in September of 2024. “[Our section] got involved and started doing one ramp a month—on the last Saturday of each month,” he explained. “We started off just doing 10 to 15-foot ramps, and this past April, we did a ramp that was 67 feet long.”

Future plans

The future is bright for all three engineering students. Durr just accepted a job offer and Spicer will be interning with Shell as a wells engineer at its Houston headquarters. “My previous internships have all been in different aspects of mechanical engineering and I am excited to see how I will thrive in the oil and energy sector,” he explained. 

The scholarship has made a great impact on him. “Getting the scholarship means a lot to me because it takes a big financial weight off my shoulders and lets me focus more on school. It also gives me the freedom to take advantage of opportunities like internships and projects without stressing about money,” Spicer said. “With that support, I can spend more time learning and growing as a mechanical engineer and less time worrying about how I’m going to pay for everything. It motivates me to keep working hard and to give back to the community that believed in me.”

For Montiel, it was in his freshman year when he first applied for an ASME scholarship and was awarded some aid. This time, he was awarded the ASME Standards and Certification Scholarship. “Scholarships not only have a big impact on the financial side of things. I feel like that’s the first thing that comes up,” he explained. “But with the award comes freedom. [The scholarship] allows you to focus a lot more time on academics and your development, being involved in organizations like ASME, and also [other activities like] the band that I love.” 

And further, the scholarship encourages Montiel to work hard. “The fact that you have people that are putting in the money, who believe in your potential. They’re invested in you. And I feel like that support is really motivating, pushing me harder as I continue my studies,” he said. 

ASME Membership offers students a unique opportunity to not only take advantage of scholarships and join student sections on campus, but to help you build your career—for only $25 per year. Learn more and join today. 

Cathy Cecere is membership content program manager.