The Wendt Scholarship Program was conceived to provide financial support to NECA Chapters that offer NECA Education training programs to their chapter members. Established in 2001, the Scholarship is named in honor of Al and Margaret Wendt of Cannon & Wendt Electric Company, who made a $1 million contribution to the ELECTRI International Education Center in 1998.
ELECTRI will award up to $5,000 in education vouchers (not more than one request per Chapter) for use in programming offered through NECA Education. For many years ELECTRI did not offer more than $1,000 to any Chapter requesting a voucher for programming costs. The increased amount for each request is to encourage Chapters to offer programming that may have been cost prohibitive in the past.
Selection Process and Evaluation Criteria
- Selection is made by a committee consisting of the Executive Director of ELECTRI International, the Director of Operations of ELECTRI International, as well as selected industry and academic leaders. Decisions by the committee are final and are not subject to review.
- Financial need – The NECA Chapter must declare that the primary cause inhibiting the chapter from sponsorship of a program is lack of an adequate resource of training funds.
- Local chapter participation – The local chapter must agree to use the grant funds in a combination with other funds that might be required to offer a NECA Education course.
- Diversity – The selection will work toward making the group of award recipients as diverse as possible, considering such factors as geography and industry sector.
- All applications must be completed in full to be considered for the award.
How to Apply for the Wendt Scholarship
NECA Chapters must download and complete the 2023 Wendt Scholarship application and email it to laura.holmes@electri.org. The deadline for the application is December 1, 2022 and awardees will be notified by December 12, 2022. The educational award will be available for use throughout 2023 and must be used by December 31, 2023.