Scholarship provides funding for students interested in STEM
PHOTO COURTESY OF COMED
In February, ComEd awarded seven students from diverse backgrounds scholarship money.
The scholarship is open to college students with a minimum 2.8 grade point average. Priority consideration will be given to students of color, women, Illinois residents enrolled in an Illinois College or University or Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Eligible degrees include Engineering, Finance, Business, Information Technology, Data Analytics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Environmental and Natural Resources.
Laticia Holbert, Workforce Development Manager, and Kristie Conklin, Senior Workforce Development Specialist, knew there was a need for scholarships for young people, so the Future of Energy Scholars Program was created in 2022.
“We knew this scholarship was important because we needed to build a pipeline of diverse STEM talent, especially for ComEd, for the energy workforce, because we knew there is so much underrepresentation,” Holbert said.
There also is an aging workforce. The aim of the scholarship program was to ensure the focus was on providing opportunities. According to Conklin, each year ComEd has a pool of up to $250,000. In the first year, there were 65 scholars.
In addition to new scholars, there is an opportunity for those who have received scholarships to renew their scholarships. Holbert said ComEd is looking to engage more communities by increasing outreach to provide more financial resources to students. They also are trying to engage with more HBCUs and Illinois residents who attend those schools. Holbert and Conklin are looking at ways to link the scholarship awardees to opportunities within ComEd and also to increase internships to the scholarship awardees.
Bansari Pandit, who is currently a student at the University of Illinois Chicago, pursuing an industrial engineering degree, received a scholarship and served as an intern with Holbert. The internship piqued her interest in the energy industry and pursuing a career at ComEd. She also will come back as an intern for ComEd. Holbert considers that a success story.
Holbert and Conklin are proud of the demographics of the awardees. Ninety-nine percent of the awardees were women or People of Color, with 65% women and 86% People of Color, with 17% attending an HBCU and 61% attending a school in Illinois. Seventy two percent of the families of the students earn less than $100,000 a year.
"ComEd is proud to invest in the future leaders of our industry. This group of young women and men represent the diverse and inclusive workforce we are dedicated to building and maintaining," Lewis Binswanger, ComEd senior vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs, said in a release. "In the very near future, Illinois is projected to gain tens of thousands of good-paying jobs as a result of the transition to a clean energy future, and we must ensure that women and young people of color benefit from this economic opportunity. This next generation of leaders will play a vital role in helping us build an equitable and clean energy future."
The deadline to submit an application is Friday, March 31. For more information or to apply for the ComEd Future of Energy STEM scholarship, visit: https://need.force.com/ComEd/s/scholarship-information. For more information on ComEd's STEM scholarship opportunities, contact WorkforceDevelopment@ComEd.com.
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