Amazon Opens Up Scholarship Applications for Future CS Engineers
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 12/02/20
High
school seniors who want to study computer science have until Feb. 18,
2021 to apply for one of 100 $40,000 scholarships being offered
through Amazon's
Future Engineer scholarship program.
The money comes with a guaranteed paid internship offer at Amazon. Of
special interest are students from under-represented groups,
including young women and students of color.
Amazon
Future Engineer
is a program that works to increase access to CS education for
children and young adults from underserved and underrepresented
communities.
Applicants
need to:
-
Complete
a CS course in high school;
-
Have
a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale;
-
Plan
to pursue a bachelor's degree in CS; and
-
Be
a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and a high school senior in a
U.S. school.
(Those
immediately related to employees of Amazon or its subsidiaries can't
apply.)
The
recipients of the scholarships are selected on the basis of their
academic performance, experience with CS, demonstrated leadership and
participation in school and community activities, work experience,
short answer responses, unusual personal or family circumstances,
financial need, racial/ethnic/gender diversity and an educator
appraisal (preferably a CS teacher).
Those
who receive the scholarships will get $10,000 each year as long as
they maintain full-time enrollment at an accredited school.
Internships
run for 12 weeks during the summer and take place after students'
freshman years of college. Interns are embedded with a software
engineering team and paired up with another intern, a manager and
mentors to work on projects, which may be for Amazon Web services,
Alexa or the retail platform.
Among
the latest recipients of the scholarships was Ashley Chu, who
currently attends the University of California, Berkeley. As she
explained in a profile on the Amazon Future Engineer website, "I
did not have a direct path to computer science: I first got hooked on
CS after seeing how it was used to create my favorite films and video
games!" Chu noted that the Amazon Future Engineer program "has
changed my life. This past summer, I worked for Amazon Web Services,
and despite the remote format, I had an unforgettable experience. One
takeaway I had was to stand up and speak out. I've always lacked
confidence, but especially with the support of my co-AFE interns, I
now feel so much more confident and proud of who I am."
To
learn more and begin the application process, visit
the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship website.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.