Building Engineers for the Future
CHICAGO—Chicago Engineers Foundation (CEF) of the Union League Club of Chicago(ULCC) is proud to announce its 2020 Incentive Award winners! Seventy-six Chicago students, including college-bound high school seniors and college students received nearly $100,000 in scholarship awards to advance their educational pursuits in engineering during the July 24th virtual award celebration.
The evening opened with a warm welcome and noting a series of accomplishments of CEF’s past Incentive Award Alumni, which number in the thousands over more than 50 years. CEF President Erik Cempel, also a CEF Alumni Scholar praised the CEF alumni community, including Mr. George A. Smith (Class of 1971), the first alumni to receive the CEF Distinguished Alumni Award last year. Mr. Smith was CEF inaugural award recipient due to his career accomplishments, and co-founding the National Society of Black Engineers with a group of fellow students while at Purdue University. Other notable CEF alumni include astronauts Joan Higginbotham and Mae Jemison.
“The Incentive Awards are based on academic accomplishments and community service aligning with CEF’s overall mission. Most CEF Scholars are the first child in their family to attend college, so these award scholarships are important to the families, too. Their pride includes the educational success of our winners. The average GPA among all of the recipients this year is 3.60 [4.0], and the average among the high school graduates is 3.8 [4.0],” stated CEF President Erik Cempel. “Also, among this year’s high school recipients, the average number of community service hours is 170.”
The CEF Class of 2020 is pursuing engineering careers in aerospace, biomedical, civil, electrical, computer science, and mechanical engineering. Student winners attend some of the most excellent engineering schools in the country, from local universities to programs nationwide. This year class of high school and college awardees represent 26 Chicago high schools, from the south, west, north, and suburban towns. A wide representation of talent from the Chicago area.
For the second year, the “Because of CEF” video competition was entertaining and demonstrated the CEF’s impact on their interests in engineering and beyond. All college award recipients were eligible for the video contest. College-level award recipients were encouraged to share videos describing how their CEF involvement has impacted their engineering career goals. The CEF student videos shared opportunities including visiting tech companies, participating in community service projects, and exploring diverse engineering areas with companies to learn more about future engineering roles as employees. Congratulations to the winners.
Special thanks to the award sponsors who generously support the student scholars in their career pursuits. This year’s sponsors are individuals, companies, and organizations that encourage and support the students and CEF in its mission.
About CEF
The Chicago Engineers’ Foundation (CEF) of the Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) contributes to the civic and economic advancement of its community and country by encouraging and promoting the vital profession of engineering. CEF advances its mission primarily through its Incentive Awards, which grants educational scholarship awards to college-bound high school graduates of Chicago high schools, and a renewal award program for currently enrolled undergraduate college students who are pursuing engineering degrees at an accredited four-year university. For more details, visit www.chicagoengineersfoundation.org.
For more information, please contact us:
Michael Driscoll, Software Engineer, CEF Chair, Awards
USG Corporation
Paul Barter, P.E., CEF Sponsorship Committee
WMA Consulting Engineers, Ltd.
312.786.4310
Deborah J. Hodges, CEF Chair, Communications, Marketing and Media
Golden Square
312.675.6080
Communicator and marketer Deborah Hodges, of Golden Square, is involved in many local organizations, including some whose events she covers.