SWE 4 Life Endowed Scholarship and Preview of New Endowed Programs

SWE D- SWE 4 Life Endowed Scholarship Program Update, New Endowed Programs in Development Starting FY18

 

SWE 4 Life Fiscal Year 2018 Status: $0 out of $2500 goal

Still need: ~$16,560 to meet final program goal of $25,000 for endowed scholarship.

 

Happy New SWE Fiscal Year!! We had a great 1^st year of support from our section’s Life Members and friends! We received over $4,000 which means we are well on our way to getting our 2^nd endowed scholarship and received the full match from SWE D for our efforts! In addition to our fundraising efforts, we are being ambitious to start two other endowed programs in the works thanks to Pat Hillberg, husband to Life Member Josie Rewald. A third Endowed Scholarship program, Josie E. Rewald Memorial Scholarship, will be geared for those going into Community College first to pursue a Technical Field. It will be a first for the whole society and we have agreed to create the pilot. Finally, we are starting an endowed program to create a teacher/mentor award in honor of Josie Rewald and Lisa Perezza. We lost both of them during the Fall 2016 and both loved to mentor young women. More details to come for the two newer endowed programs. 

 

For those reading our blog for the first time, our current Endowed Scholarship initiative targets our section’s Life Members to take the lead and build a legacy to support future female engineers through an endowed scholarship. The challenge to the Life members is to raise $2,500 each year for the next four (4) years to reach the $25,000 required for an endowed scholarship. To help encourage participation, SWE Detroit’s current officers agreed to match up to $2,500 each year to support the initiative. The endowed scholarship will provide an annual $1,000 scholarship to an aspiring and deserving women pursuing engineering. If the goal is met, the first scholarship would be awarded during the 70^th Anniversary of SWE Detroit! SWE D’s Life Members would like the first scholarship to be given in honor of Josie E. Rewald.

 

If you know any of the SWE Detroit Life Members, please help us communicate to them. We have found that they, like many of you, are super busy and can miss the posts and emails. Some don’t even have an email. So if you see them at work or outside, please tell them what you have read on the blog.

 

Not a Life Member? No problem, anyone can donate to the fund (some have already). Every little bit helps, so we encourage you to donate if you can. Your donation is tax deductible.

 

The program will be tracked separately from the Member Solicitation Program and have its own levels:

Diamond           $ 1000 +                                  

                        Sapphire           $   500 to $ 999

                        Emerald           $   250 to $ 499

                        Quartz              $   50 to $ 249                         

 

Contributions will be tracked yearly and the level will be determined based on accumulated contributions received by SWE Detroit.

 

To donate online to any of our programs, go to www.swedetroit.org and look for the Donate Button on the site for Paypal.  After you submit your information and input your donation amount, you will have the opportunity to designate your donation. Please input in the text field to allow it to be allocated appropriately: “SWE 4 Life Endowed Scholarship or Life Members Endowed Scholarship”, “Josie E. Rewald Memorial Scholarship”, “Teacher/Mentor Award”, or other to allow it to be allocated appropriately.

 

To donate via check: mail the check to Society of Women Engineers – Detroit, PO Box 2978, Southfield, MI 48037 and place in the memo section “SWE 4 Life Scholarship”, “Josie E. Rewald”, or “Teacher/Mentor Award”.

 

Big Thanks to our supporters who have donated so far to our programs (updated as of 8/3/17):

SWE 4 Life Scholarship (Goal: $25,000)

Diamond

Dawn Tilbury

 

Sapphire Level

Laurie Ramsay

Brooke Voto

Ally (company match in honor of Brooke Voto)

 

Emerald Level

Lisa & Christopher Rewald (in honor of Josie Rewald)

Tina Poquette

Michele Marion

Susan Cischke

Kristine Lott

Lisa Henn

 

Quartz Level

Jessica Swan

Miriam Breslauer

Katie Amelio

Lisa Purvis

Jenny Morikawa (in honor of Josie Rewald)

Cathi Kohn

Barabara Ferry (in honor of Josie Rewald)

Katherine Hillberg (in honor of Josie Rewald)

 

Josie E. Rewald Memorial Scholarship (Goal: $25,000)

 

 

Teacher/Mentor Award Endowed Program (Name TBD, Goal $27,500)

 

 

If you have any questions, are interested in supporting the SWE Detroit SWE 4 Life Program, or creating your own endowed program to build a pipeline or legacy to benefit SWE Detroit Programs, please contact Lisa Purvis, Jenny Partlan, Anne Kamenju, or Jennifer Morikawa at swe_detroit@swe.org.