Boeing donates to scholarship fund
January 15, 2009
STARKVILLE, Miss. –Despite rampant fears of a failing economy, a global leader in aerospace systems has provided a donation to help educate future engineers at Mississippi State University.
Boeing, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial and military aircraft, presented $4,000 to the Bagley College of Engineering’s aerospace engineering department for the general scholarship fund. The company sees this donation as an investment towards furthering the aerospace industry.
“We hope this can be one of the first of many combined efforts and relationships between Boeing and Mississippi State,” said Rick Walley, an engineer from Boeing’s Jackson, Miss., office. “It is exciting and very important to give back to the schools that are responsible for educating the next generation of engineers.”
The donation will be used to provide several students with a Boeing scholarship, which is especially important in these tough economic times.
“At a time when work-force development is of a major concern for the aerospace industry, interaction with Boeing provides a win-win strategy,” said Dr. Tony Vizzini, head of the department of aerospace engineering. “With these funds several students will be able to focus on their studies, rather than how to afford them.”
This donation is the latest of several initiatives designed to help the aerospace firm give back to universities. Another example is the Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellowship Program, which selected MSU professor Dr. Masoud Rais-Rohani as a participant. One of just 10 participants from around the country, he was able to spend seven weeks at the company’s various facilities, gaining first hand knowledge of the aerospace industry.
Headquartered in Chicago, Ill., the company employs more than 160,000 people in over 70 countries. According to the Boeing’s Web site more than 83,800 of those employees hold college degrees from approximately 2,800 universities, including Mississippi State.