Cal State Long Beach received $140,000 for student scholarships from the Boeing Company — the largest grant the company gives to any institution.
The Boeing Company is one of the world’s leading aerospace companies and has been a large supporter of CSULB for the last couple of years.
CSULB President F. King Alexander said in a press release that Boeing’s financial support over the years has reached a total of nearly $3 million.
“Education, and certainly higher education, is our highest ranking community priority at Boeing, not only in Long Beach and Southern California, but also across the entire corporation,” said David Bowman, vice president and general manager of Boeing Integrated Defense System’s Tanker Program. “For Boeing Long Beach, Cal State Long Beach has long been our ‘University of Choice’ for such giving.”
Bowman was born and raised in Long Beach and attended CSULB.
The money will be distributed across five of the eight colleges at CSULB: engineering, education, business administration, liberal arts, and natural sciences and mathematics.
The College of Engineering will receive $50,500, the largest share of the funds. Of that portion, $48,000 will go toward undergraduate scholarships for majors focusing on different industrial needs in the workplace, including electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer science. The remaining money will be used to support student engineering organizations.
The College of Education will receive $25,000, the College of Business Administration will be allotted $24,000, the College of Liberal Arts will get $21,500 and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics will receive $19,000.
Bowman said the engineering department received the largest share of funds due to their relationship with the Boeing industry.
“Engineering is a natural focus for the scholarship because of Boeing’s position as the world’s leading aerospace company,” he said.
Forouzan Gloshani, dean of the CSULB College of Engineering, said many of the programs would benefit from the scholarship, with Boeing giving direction on how the money would be prioritised.
“High performing students in areas such as aerospace, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering will receive priority in receiving scholarships,” Gloshani said. “We also are going to support underrepresented groups in engineering, as we have quite a few. We hopefully will correct some of the statistical discrepancies we are facing right now.”
Certain junior and senior students will receive scholarships for the spring semester and some of the incoming class for fall 2009 may also be eligible. Gloshani also received word from Boeing that they are making specific allocations for transfer students, which will contribute to their “Troops to Engineers” program launched earlier this year.
“[Troops to Engineers] helps veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan ease back into civilian life,” he said. “With money allocated to transfer students, veterans will have a greater chance of continuing on into CSULB after community college, especially in our computer engineering programs.”
With the state budget affecting enrollment at many CSU campuses for fall 2009, Gloshani said this contribution to the college can help them deal with the cuts.
“The money will help us indirectly, as it will help us with our competitors UCLA and UC Irvine,” he said. “If we can offer a package that is competitive, then we have a greater chance to attract higher caliber students.”
“We’re looking forward to working with students and administrators there for years to come,” Bowman said.