Scholarships

Director's Scholarship | Segan Memorial Scholarship | Griep Memorial Scholarship | Division Memorial Scholarship

2007 Scholarship Winners Announced
Ken Griep, Chair of the Student Activities Committee, announces the following winners of the Thermoforming Division Scholarships. These will be presented to the winners at the annual Thermoforming Conference.

$1,000 DIRECTORS’ SCHOLARSHIP KEVIN E. DESOTELL UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-PLATTEVILLE		$7,500 SEGAN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP KORY R. SLYE PENN STATE UNIVERSITY-ERIE
Kevin will be a senior at the University of Wisconsin – Platteville, where he is pursuing a B.S. in Industrial Technology Management, with minors in metals and plastics processing. A serious speed-skater, Kevin is a member of the United States Speedskating Association and the Badger Speedskating club. He is also an active member of the SPE Student Chapter at UWP. Kevin is putting his classroom experience in thermoforming to good use. He is currently working on a package design to hold items to promote UWP’s plastics program to area high schools. The mold is being made by a local company, and will run on the new roll-fed thermoformer the school obtained with help from the Thermoforming Division Equipment Grant. Back to Top		Kory will be a senior at Penn State - Erie thisfall, working on his B.S. in PlasticsEngineering Technology. A Dean’s List student, he maintains a 3.84 gpa. He was accepted into the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State, which allows him to research any aspect of the plastics industry he chooses. Kory credits being an active member of SPE for the many opportunities he has had at Penn State. Last summer, he was selected to participate in a Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of Southern Mississippi in the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials. While there, he researched a monomer that would provide a drug eluting coating for coronary artery stents, conducted various chemical experiments, and co- authored a paper that was presented at the ACS meeting earlier this year. He presently works for Beaumont Technologies in the R&D department, where he conducts studies on various aspects of runner and gating design.
$7,500 GRIEP MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP TIMOTHY D. MCMASTER PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY		$7,500 DIVISION MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP LUCAS D. STALLBAUMER PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
Tim McMaster will be a junior at Pittsburg State this fall, working on his B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology. Married and the father of two children, this scholarship will help ease the challenge of supporting a family and getting a degree. Tim works at a custom fiberglass shop that manufactures corrosion resistant air handling equipment. He has also worked on projects for a thermoforming company in the area, designing molds and selecting materials for the production of various parts. He modified a planter tray that is used to hold soil and grow grass on the roofs of buildings in large inner city areas, and is currently working on a thermoformed LDPE allweather enclosure for industrial wireless networking routers and switches used in warehouse inventory tracking. This replaces a thermoset product that failed, and provides a substantial savings to the customer. Working and attending school full time has required cooperation by Tim’s family and employer – and his desire to succeed shows. He is maintaining a 4.0 gpa in his major!		This is the second year Lucas has received a scholarship from the Thermoforming Division. He was also a recipient in 2006. He received his B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology last May from Pittsburg State University and is a graduate student at Pittsburg State University, working on his MBA. Lucas had an internship with Joe Peters at Universal Plastics in 2005, where he experienced all kinds of applications from thin gauge to thick gauge, and from drape forming to trap forming. Lucas said he learned all aspects of thermoforming that summer. He works as a plastics lab assistant at Pittsburg, and teaches new students how to use the thermoforming machine. He helped a few seniors with their senior thermoforming projects, and uses thermoforming to make simple prototypes in his part design classes. Lucas plans to get his MBA to make him a more well-rounded job candidate when he graduates in 2008.

The SPE Foundation - Thermoforming Division
Memorial Scholarship Program

The SPE Foundation, an affiliate of the Society of Plastics Engineers, offers numerous scholarships to students who have demonstrated or expressed an interest in the plastics industry. They must be majoring in or taking courses that would be beneficial to a career in the plastics industry.

The Thermoforming Division of SPE awards two scholarships each year through the Foundation. These $7,500 scholarships are available to graduate or undergraduate students who have experience in the thermoforming industry, such as courses taken, research conducted, or jobs held.

To be considered for a Thermoforming Division Memorial Scholarship for the 2007-2008 school year, applicants must complete an application and return it to The SPE Foundation by January 15, 2007.

The application submitted must include:

1. A completed application form.

2. Three recommendation forms: two from a teacher or school official and one from an employer or non-relative.

3. A high school and/or college transcript for the last two years.

4. A one- to two-page typed statement telling why the applicant is applying for the scholarship, the applicant’s qualifications, and the applicant’s educational and career goals in the plastics industry. Applicants for the Thermoforming Division Memorial Scholarship must include a statement detailing their exposure to the thermoforming industry.

All scholarships will be paid directly to the recipients’ schools. The SPE Foundation will not award scholarships to applicants who are not qualified and reserves the right to not award a scholarship in a given year if it so chooses.

To Obtain Your Application
To obtain an application for the 2007-2008 Scholarship Program, contact The SPE Foundation via e-mail (foundation@4spe.org) or call Melissa Coccaro at 203-740-5430.

Applications are also available directly from the SPE website:

http://www.4spe.org/foundation/scholarship_brochure.pdf