The Precision Metalforming Association Educational Foundation (PMAEF) and the East Michigan District of PMA are excited to announce the 2022 educational scholarship recipients! These recipients have shown an interest in continuing their careers in manufacturing through enrolling in academic courses or taking part in an apprenticeship/training program.
Spring 2022
Scholarship Amount
- PMA Educational Foundation: $250
- East Michigan District: $250
- Total: $500
As a Tool & Die Apprentice, Bradley is honing his skills in the creation of precision metalwork. Bradley believes that skills, however, can only take one so far without the proper tools. Over the past year, he has advanced his skills and gone from knowing very little about the tool and die-making process to obtaining the skills necessary to succeed in the field. He has utilized various measurement tools, performed maintenance on tooling, and made components that aid in the proper function of a die, including stop blocks and sensor houses.
In addition to the skills he is building in the tool room, he is attending fabrication classes that are creating a solid foundation for conducting operations on lathes, drill presses, and mills. Some of the operations he has learned include creating a taper on a lathe, milling a piece of stock square, machining holes to be reamed or tapped, and countersinking operations with a radial drill press. While he knows he has a lot of hard work ahead of him, Bradley is always doing his best to seek advice from his experienced coworkers and provide assistance. As he transitions into his second year, he desires to learn how to make much more complex components on a die, such as punches and forming tools.
Beyond work, Bradley is an avid musician. His long-term goal is to apply what he is learning to fabricate parts for brass instruments. In addition, he is interested in operations such as creating a trumpet bell on a lathe, machining valve casings on a mill and using CNC technology to create mouthpieces.
Scholarship Amount
- PMA Educational Foundation: $750
- East Michigan District: $750
- Total: $1,500
Kimberly’s interest in Manufacturing Engineering is not confined to the classroom, as she explored it through an internship at THK Automotive. According to Kimberly, the world is moving forward with self-driven cars. With this trend, THK faces the possibility of going out of production as they make steering linkages that would be replaced by steer-by-wire. Though some AVs still use tie-rods, THK needs to cut costs to remain competitive and not underpay staff. Being proactive and innovative, she analyzed the layout of manufacturing and then designed a machine that would speed up production, reduce human interaction, and essentially cut the cost of production. The sphere of knowledge that interests her most in her career as an engineer is vastly centered around technological innovations. As technology increases, so do the possibilities of new knowledge, especially in the engineering industry.
Engineering chose her because she is persistent. No matter the situation, she always finds a way to reach a solution. Kimberly’s experience at Kettering and THK has been an accurate tester of this. She has encountered many difficulties that she finds hard to navigate through, but by creating a support system for students, she was able to get help and help others. Her superb qualities as a student and engineer have allowed her to impact other students in the Kettering community by leading Several on-campus organizations. She later earned an entry-level spot on the school’s prestigious Robot Honor society and Kappa Mu Epsilon.
Her goal is to help them feel more a part of the community and feel continually supported by the school system. This goal stems from her heritage as a member of an underserved community, who only became important during the election period. By extension, her goal as an engineer is to create innovative processes and designs that open many solutions for different problems within the manufacturing community while creating job opportunities and economic growth.
Scholarship Amount
- PMA Educational Foundation: $750
- East Michigan District: $750
- Total: $1,500
From a young age, Kyle enjoyed all things mechanical. He often took apart toys to see how they worked, played with building blocks, and repeatedly tried to make the perfect paper airplane. This interest has carried him well beyond the Lego bricks of his youth; from classes in school to his love of machining, he keeps “making” at the forefront of his life.
At his school, he participates in many STEM-related activities. Perhaps the most notable is the STEM academy, a curriculum of classes that span from freshman through senior year and teaches students the skills required to succeed in a STEM and product manufacturing-related fields. He has learned the design process, CAD, CAM, and many opportunities in manufacturing engineering. It has also helped him network within the local engineering community; he obtained an internship interview with the international engineering firm Hella. He is a leader on his high school robotics team and is the student responsible for the Fabrication subgroup. They handle the manufacture of all the robot’s physical components. Through this work, related leadership role, and his personal experience in their home shop with a lathe and knee mill, he found his love for machining.
Working with materials in hand and with an end goal in mind is more satisfying to him than most anything else. He enjoys the feel and sound of the cut with the correct speed (rpm) and feeds using an endmill, drill, or lathe tool to remove metal from a workpiece. Nearly as satisfying as actually machining himself is the feeling he gets from teaching others to do so. When rookies join the team, it is his responsibility to ensure they are taught the skills they need to support the busy build season. It lets him truly test his knowledge and share it with others to enjoy.
As a student, he has received several accolades. He is a National Merit Scholarship finalist and has been an active participant in the National Honor Society for two years. In addition, he maintained honor roll status for the entirety of his high school career. Perhaps most important, however, is his achievement of the rank of Eagle, the highest scout award possible in the Boy Scouts of America. He truly learned what it means to be a good citizen and leader in becoming an Eagle. From fitness to citizenship and many disciplines in between, it has made him a well-rounded individual who can draw connections from various fields toward solving a problem. Finally, through planning and executing his Eagle service project for a local school, he learned how to see his ideas from concept to completion.
Making and manufacturing are integral to design. Kyle plans to center his further education and ultimately his career on these linked activities.
Scholarship Amount
- PMA Educational Foundation: $750
- East Michigan District: $750
- Total: $1,500
For the past 16 years, Deborah's identity has been shaped by being a student. She thrived in fast-paced environments from a young age and soared to the top of classes. This mentality was able to get her through high school, but never being faced with academic challenges, she didn't particularly feel the need to grow.
But the past two years of being in college, especially in a pandemic-driven online setting, completely transformed this outlook. Deborah's eyes were opened to the beauty of engineering and the sheer number of people she would be able to help and interact with throughout her career. She believes being complacent in her education won't allow her to grow as a student or gain skills for the workforce.
As a sophomore studying Industrial Engineering at the University of Michigan, she maintains a 3.90 GPA and has done exceptionally well in various engineering courses. She believes she is a great candidate for this scholarship as it will allow her to combine her passion for spreading STEM advocacy and engineering across her community. She is a very determined individual who strives to promote diversity and inclusion and encourages traditional minorities to step up as leaders in the workplace.
As well as maintaining her grades, Deborah has joined several engineering clubs on campus, including the Society of Women Engineers. She also has previous experience with administrative roles, mechanical skills and mentorship through her time as the captain and current mentor of her high school robotics team. These experiences allow her to work with numerous sizes of groups as well as take on leadership roles in various aspects of engineering. She loves working in these roles as it provides a platform for her to mentor, teach and inspire younger students, especially girls, that they too can become involved in engineering from a young age.
Currently, she works as an instructional aide in the robotics department at Michigan. Within this role, she assists students in developing both their technical and communication skills.
Scholarship Amount
- PMA Educational Foundation: $250
- East Michigan District: $250
- Total: $500
Christopher is a full-time tool & die apprentice at E&E Manufacturing, aspiring to become a high-level certified tool & die maker. He is a hard-working and self-motivated employee with an analytical mindset. In addition, Christopher believes that any obstacle can be overcome with hard work. During his four-year employment at E&E Manufacturing, he has developed an in-depth knowledge of the principles of manufacturing.
His love for the trade and kinesthetic learning style has helped him prove that he can apply his knowledge to the field and help make die runs more efficient to maximize their production. He goes to work every day to have a solid foundation on how manufacturing works so he can advance himself in the company. His end goal is to become a certified engineer/die designer with extensive manufacturing and health and safety knowledge.
Christopher is looking forward to developing an awareness and understanding of safe manufacturing processes so that he can create a better work environment for both customers and employees. He has already begun trying to achieve his goal by becoming proficient in multiple software, including Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, MIT App Inventor, Visual Basic, SOLIDWORKS, CATIA, and Siemens NX. He has also received an OSHA Career safety 30-hour training certification and a CPR certification through the American Heart Association.
An academic knowledgeable in manufacturing, tool and die, and integrating information from all sources will help provide new perspectives on problem-solving and allow him to think outside the box to develop new solutions to everyday problems.
Kyle Boylard – University of Michigan, Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering
Christopher