College Awarded $40,000 in Grants Since 2015
The Gene Haas Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant for the 2017-18 academic year to support scholarships and National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) credentialing for County College of Morris (CCM) students enrolled in machine-based training and/or an engineering program.
The Gene Haas Foundation has provided grants totaling $40,000 to CCM since 2015. To date, these grants have funded scholarships for four female students in the Mechanical Engineering Technology Program at the college.
The first scholarship recipient, Luisa Palacio-Zapata, of Mine Hill, was born in Columbia and came to the USA as a child, inspired by her aunt to become an engineer. Kathryn DiPietro, of Sussex, the second scholarship recipient, majors in both Mechanical Engineering Technology and Engineering Science and hopes to use engineering to improve the lives of others. She has been an active member in the CCM engineering labs, conducting an independent study in materials science and prototyping.
The third and fourth scholarship recipients, Vivian Rosenberg, of Lake Hiawatha, and Janeen Ridings, of Budd Lake, both spent a significant amount of time in CCM’s prototyping lab this past year.
Rosenberg was an active member of the Women in STEM Club at CCM and led a project building prosthetic hands to donate to children in need. Two prosthetic hands were donated recently to a hospital in Brazil to recipients in a rural area.
Ridings graduated this past spring with an Applied Associate of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology. She worked as a student aide in the materials testing and prototyping labs and played a significant role in setting up tooling and fixtures for parts in the NASA HUNCH program, which allows high school students to work on projects for the International Space Station.
Photo: CCM receives its fourth Gene Haas Foundation grant. Pictured (l-r) are CCM Lab Assistant Eric Pedersen; John Schamarek Jr. CMTSE, Sales Engineer, Allendale Machinery Systems; CCM Foundation President Joseph Vitale; and CCM Engineering Technology/Engineer Science Department Chairperson Venny Fuentes.
