Ford Donation Leads Way For STEM Education For Minority Students

DEARBORN, MI — Ford Motor Co. is donating $250,000 to the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, a move that will create the Detroit Area Bridge Scholars Program and help underrepresented students prepare for careers in engineering and computer science.

The council will work with the University of Michigan and implement a digital boot camp and mentoring program, providing high school students with funding, educational courses and mentorship opportunities from 11th grade through their first year of college, the company said.

The program plans to engage 60 students across Southeast Michigan, Ford said, with plans to offer the newly developed programming to an even wider group of students in time.

“The number of ambitious, capable students the STEM field loses every year due to lack of funding and support is simply unacceptable,” Ford Chief Technology Officer Ken Washington said. “Ford is committed to building bridges so that people from all walks of life have the chance to be successful in STEM – and make a difference at places like Ford by changing the way we move.”

Underrepresented students often face several obstacles — the overwhelming cost of school tuition, lack of preparation for university-level academic courses and little guidance on how to translate academic skills to the real world — on their way to earning a degree in STEM fields, the company said.

The new donation from Ford helps NACME address all those issues, allowing the organization to collaborate with other partners. The program will begin by focusing on recruiting students in Metro Detroit.