Creating Opportunities for Students
In 2011, Alexandria Provencher (in purple, at bottom) did not know what she wanted to do when she grew up. After ESD’s Future City Competition, she knew. “It was the start of my career,” she says. Today, she is a Staff Engineer at NTH Consultants—the sponsor of the award she won back then. Outreach works, and donations make a difference.
Because of the generous support of our donors, The Engineering Society of Detroit has adapted to the challenges that 2020 has brought and engineered new solutions to unexpected circumstances—just like we have done since 1895. We have focused on four key areas:
- University Chapters—We helped students in our University Student Chapters find internships and employment to replace opportunities cancelled because of the pandemic.
- Student Scholarships—We awarded $18,000 in merit-based scholarships to high school and college students.
- Future City Competition—We pivoted our signature middle school program to a virtual environment.
We are especially proud of our Girls in Engineering Academy.Our Girls in Engineering Academy prepares girls from underrepresented communities to become engineers. Our sixth graders who began in 2017 are now high schoolers, in their fourth year of the program. Courtney Wright (pictured at left) is one of them. Courtney, who began ninth grade at Cass Tech this fall, says, “The Academy 100% helped me decide what career I wanted to pursue: chemical engineering.” High school now under way, we are preparing Courtney for what’s next. With the rest of her Academy cohort, she spent part of her summer online earning two college-level certificates—in CAD design and robot car construction.Experiences like these create opportunities for young people.
Because of your financial support, ESD is able to give more opportunities to students like Courtney. Please consider a donation today so that we can continue to support the engineers of tomorrow. Donations can be made in three ways:
- Donate online at events.esd.org/give
- Call us at 248-353-0735, ext. 116.
- Mail us at this address
Your gift provides opportunities to Michigan students.