Milpitas, CA—SanDisk Corporation announced the final round of SanDisk Scholars for 2012. A total of 50 students will each receive scholarships of at least $10,000 over four years to achieve undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM).
The scholarships are being granted for the following universities: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; University of California at Berkeley; University of California at Los Angeles; and University of Texas at Austin. The SanDisk Foundation also provided grants totaling $200,000 to the School of Engineering at both UC Berkeley and Stanford University.
These schools will award an additional 14 scholarships to graduate students who pursue STEM-related studies and also meet the program’s selection criteria regarding grade point average, financial need, focus on STEM-related studies and/or research, with a particular emphasis on women, Latino and African-American first-time college students.
“We are pleased with the high caliber of students who have received these awards for 2012, and SanDisk is committed to investing in the leaders of tomorrow’s technology industry,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of SanDisk. “We wish our scholarship recipients many years of academic and professional success as they pursue a future in STEM-related fields.”
The SanDisk Scholars program is part of the SanDisk Foundation, which has committed up to $1 million in annual scholarships to assist economically disadvantaged and underrepresented students, such as women, Latinos and African-Americans, pursue and complete college level studies in STEM-related fields. Scholarships are based on a variety of factors, including past academic achievements, amount of community service performed and present financial need.
In 2012, the fund committed $1 million in scholarships and grants, and to date has helped a total of 98 students in 2012. This includes scholarships given in June 2012 to 29 students from 16 states to achieve undergraduate degrees in STEM-related studies at colleges and universities throughout the U.S.
The SanDisk Scholars program is funded by the SanDisk Foundation, a corporate-advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation that provides philanthropic support to charitable organizations worldwide. SanDisk supports a variety of programs and charitable organizations through the SanDisk Foundation. Since 2003, the foundation has awarded more than $16 million to 818 charitable organizations worldwide. sandisk.com