Thirteen students from Fort Lewis College’s Physics and Engineering Department were the first to receive funding from a $1 million scholarship as part of the FLC Engineering Scholars Program.
Each student received between $5,000 and $10,000 to help offset tuition and support research projects. The funding will be distributed to scholarship recipients over a five-year period.
Don May, FLC physics and engineering professor, said the money helps students concentrate on studies and not worry about working during school.
“This will help students get through the program and move into the workforce,” May said.
Students receive faculty mentoring as part of the scholarship program and take part in field trips and research projects domestically and abroad.
FLC scholarship recipient Raven T. Sutton said mentoring and networking are a huge part of the program.
Sutton, an engineering major, used a portion of the funding to travel to Myanmar in the summer and work on water sustainability with the Village Aid Project.
He said the experience showed him how to create solutions with little resources.
“What we do over there doesn’t matter at all unless we approach it in a way to allow the people to learn and create their own resources so they can continue on their own,” Sutton said.
He said the FLC scholarship program kept him focused on studies and gave him outside exposure related to his engineering interests.
kwalsh@durangoherald.com
