AGMA Foundation awards five scholarships to undergraduate and graduate engineers pursuing futures in the gear industry

Posted on by AGMA Foundation

Alexandria, VA, October 6, 2022 – The AGMA Foundation Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2022 Scholarship awards. Each fall, the Foundation awards $5,000 scholarships at the Undergraduate and Graduate levels and has scholarships available at $2,500 at the Association or Technical school level. Applicants with work and/or research experience in the gear or power transmission industry receive preference for scholarship awards.

The 2022 AGMA Foundation Scholarship recipients with their school affiliations are:

Undergraduate

  • Josh Biddle, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
  • Hailey Yoon-Ha Devney, George Washington University
  • Nicholas Wever, Kettering University

Graduate

  • Abolfazl Hosseinpour, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • Milad Azvar, University of Waterloo

The five recipients were chosen through a subjective process designed by the AGMA Foundation Scholarship Committee. Nine seasoned gear industry veterans volunteered to review all of this year’s applications.  “The purpose of our scholarship program is to award students who are specifically pursuing work in the gear industry,” said Mary Ellen Doran, AGMA Foundation Executive Director.

The proceeds from the endowment and donations form AGMA member companies and industry individuals are the sole source of funding for the scholarship program. The scholarship awards fulfill the Foundation’s mission to recruit, educate, and keep the power transmission industry current with emerging technology.

The AGMA Foundation 2022 Annual Campaign is currently underway. Donations can be made through the website at www.agmafoundation.org.

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AGMA Foundation past Executive Director honored with AGMA Chairman’s Award

Posted on by AGMA Foundation

Cindy Bennett, Former Executive Director of the AGMA Foundation was honored with a Chairman’s Award at the recent AGMA/ABMA Annual Meeting in Palm Beach, Florida.

Cindy served as the AGMA Foundation’s Executive Director for 10 years, where she spent thousands of hours working for the betterment of the Foundation and the gear industry. Over her tenure, she coordinated the scholarship program that secured the most recent Linda & Bipin Doshi endowment, the ongoing annual meeting golf program, spearheaded the Get into Gears, Spin it Forward and Annual Fundraising Campaigns that have garnered hundreds of downloads and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars to help support AGMA initiatives, authored the 100th year AGMA anniversary book, and so much more.

AGMA FOUNDATION AWARDS NINE SCHOLARSHIPS TO UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE ENGINEERS PURSUING FUTURES IN THE GEAR INDUSTRY

Posted on by AGMA Foundation

For the first time two awards were given from the Linda & Bipin Doshi Scholarship Endowment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Alexandria, VA, October 26, 2021 – The AGMA Foundation Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2021 Scholarship awards. Each fall, the Foundation awards $5,000 scholarships at the Undergraduate and Graduate levels and has scholarships available at $2,500 at the Association or Technical school level. Applicants with work and/or research experience in the gear or power transmission industry receive preference for scholarship awards.

This year marks the first time that the AGMA Foundation awarded two scholarships from the Linda and Bipin Doshi Scholarship Endowment. The Doshi’s, formerly of Schafer Industries, established a $100,000 scholarship endowment in April 2018 to fund scholarships.

The 2021 AGMA Foundation Scholarship recipients with their school affiliations are:

Undergraduate

  • Tom Abraham, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)*
  • Sagar Khadka, Western Michigan University
  • Mitch MacDermaid, Western Michigan University
  • Chad Mellon, Purdue University
  • Nicholas Wever, Kettering University

*Denotes Doshi Scholarship Endowment recipients.

Graduate

  • David Ajoku, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Abolfazl Hosseinpour, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • Kevin Qiu, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Ankit Vivek Gujrathi, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

The nine recipients were chosen through a subjective process designed by the AGMA Foundation Scholarship Committee. Ten seasoned gear industry veterans volunteered to review all of this year’s applications.  “The scholarship process is rigorous and fair,” said Mary Ellen Doran, AGMA Foundation Executive Director. “These students represent some of the best coming into our industry in the next few years.”

The proceeds from the endowment and donations form AGMA member companies and industry individuals are the sole source of funding for the scholarship program. The scholarship awards fulfill the Foundation’s mission to recruit, educate, and keep the power transmission industry current with emerging technology.

The AGMA Foundation 2021 Annual Campaign is currently underway. Donations can be made through the website at www.agmafoundation.org.

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The AGMA Foundation Announces New Executive Director to Continue Support to Gear Industry

Posted on by AGMA Foundation

June 1, 2021 – Alexandria, VA – The AGMA Foundation is pleased to announce Mary Ellen Doran as the Foundation’s new Executive Director. She will assume the role beginning today, June 1, 2021.

The appointment comes after the retirement of Cindy Bennett, AGMA Foundation Executive Director, who had held the position since 2014,

Doran is currently the Director, Emerging Technology for AGMA and she will hold dual roles for the AGMA and the AGMA Foundation.

“Mary Ellen has more than 20 years of non-profit experience with specific experience in fundraising,” states Dean Burrows, Chair of the AGMA Foundation and President of Gear Motions. “In addition, her outstanding work at AGMA in communication and emerging technology roles, and the positive relationships she has developed over her ten years at AGMA, ensures she is the right fit to move the Foundation forward.”

Doran will work with the Foundation Trustees to develop a strategic plan that leans toward the three pillars of the AGMA Foundation: Education & Training; Scholarships; and Emerging Technology specifically tailored for the needs of the gear industry.

“Mary Ellen has the right skill set to help us develop new avenues for fundraising including planned and corporate giving,” commented Ruthie Johnston, AGMA Foundation Trustee and President of Croix Gear & Machining. “I look forward to working with her to help sustain and grow the great programs we offer.”

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AGMA Foundation Executive Director, Cindy Bennett, Announces Retirement

Posted on by AGMA Foundation

May 27, 2021 – ALEXANDRIA, VA – Cindy Bennett will retire as the AGMA Foundation Director on May 31, 2021. Bennett has served as the Foundation’s executive director for a combined 11 years during two different tenures, with the most recent starting in 2014.

“Cindy will be leaving the Foundation on solid ground,” notes Dean Burrows, Chair of the AGMA Foundation and President of Gear Motions. “On behalf of the Foundation Trustees and the industry she has served, we thank Cindy for her years of dedicated service, and wish her the very best in retirement.”

During her time at the help of the Foundation she has done a tremendous amount for the gear industry. She built up the scholarship program, providing more than $300,000 in scholarships to students. The program has an 86% retention rate of graduated recipients working in the gear industry. She oversaw the efforts to educate the industry on AGMA’s rich history, as part of the AGMA 100th anniversary celebration, including authoring, “Celebrating 100 Years of Gearing, The History of AGMA,” published in 2016.

In 2017, she worked with the Trustees to chart a new strategic plan for the Foundation. This effort resulted in four new engineering classes, four new operator level classes, and the development of the AGMA National Training Center.

She also led the design and implementation of the AGMA Foundation Get Into Gears Employee Recruitment Toolkit. The toolkit, free to download, is designed to help gear manufacturers and suppliers to the industry recruit people into a great career in the gear industry. The toolkit includes print ads, posters, social media advertisements and more tools that have aided manufacturers in bringing in new employees. Over 200 companies have utilized this free program.

“Cindy led the Foundation with professionalism, and incredible dedication to its mission,” added Justin McCarthy, AGMA Foundation Trustee, and responsible for Business Development at Scot Forge. “She worked hard to make sure that the gear industry was well represented, and that the work that we did always reflected the needs of the manufacturers in our industry.