The Finkl Scholarships were established courtesy of a gift from A. Finkl and Sons Co. in memory of Chuck Finkl to encourage students to pursue careers in the forging industry. The program has awarded more than 170 scholarships since 2004. The industry at large has supported the scholarships at a significant level, allowing approximately $589,000 to be awarded.  

Who should apply?

University students entering their junior year in the fall of 2015 majoring in metallurgical, materials, mechanical or other engineering fields with a grade point average of 2.75 or higher can apply by April 15. Students with a connection to the forging industry are given first consideration. Recipients receive $2,000 in both their junior and senior years to help cover educational costs. Applications are now available. Please visit www.forging.org for more information.

Where are past recipients now?

Through 2014, 131 Finkl Scholarship recipients completed their degrees (58 graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, 25 in materials engineering and 14 in metallurgical engineering), and 22 completed a master’s degree.  Of these past scholarship recipients, 48 are currently working in the forging supply chain at forging producers, 13 at supplier companies and 27 for customers. Overall, 64% of recipients are either employed in the forging supply chain, in graduate school or are still undergraduates.

What can a scholarship mean?

Bradley Foley is a 2014 Finkl Scholarship recipient. He is a mechanical engineering student at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Mich., and a co-op at American Axle & Manufacturing. Here is what he had to say.

“As a child, my ultimate goal was to attend a top university in the engineering field,” Foley said. “Little did I know how expensive it would be! In order to attend Lawrence Technological University, I began working part time in plastic injection molding as a senior in high school. I also received a merit scholarship that covers half of the tuition. At the end of my sophomore year, I had ambitions of finding a job in my field of interest as an engineer.

“At my school’s co-op/internship fair, I came across American Axle & Manufacturing. At that time, I was enrolled in a class called ‘Manufacturing Processes’ and was extremely interested in that concentration. During my interview, I was told about the Finkl Scholarship. Sure enough, I was hired into the Metal Formed Products Business Unit as a summer intern, and I had another potential method of funding my education.

“During my first week as an intern, I was thrown into the fire working on advance press process control. It was my responsibility to install and program a full camera vision system that would detect tip-overs during a forging operation and capture the fault using a high-speed video – all of the information needed to be accessible to the operator so that tool life could be increased and downtime could be decreased. 

“When I received my Finkl Scholarship letter, I realized that this supplement to my education would allow me to focus on learning about machine programming and human interaction. It would also allow me to continue to work after my internship ended as a co-op during my fall semester at school, furthering my work and learning experience at American Axle & Manufacturing.” 

Would you like to be a part of the solution to encourage young engineers to seek out careers in the forging supply chain? Contact Karen Lewis at 216-781-6260 to make a tax-deductible gift to support scholarships.

FIERF is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. 100% of contributions go directly to fund projects and activities. Contributions, bequests and gifts to the Foundation are deductible for Federal income, estate and gift tax purposes. Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation, 1111 Superior Avenue, Suite 615, Cleveland, OH 44114. Phone: 216-781-5040, E-mail: foundation@forging.org, Web: www.forging.org