Meet the Manufacturers – Scholarship Opportunities

 Welcome to Meet the Manufacturer's podcast. Brought to you by Manufacturer CT and sponsored by Cohn Reznick who are dedicated to helping manufacturers and distributors to enhance their competitive position and succeed in high pressure trade environments. Visit them online at cohnreznick.com. Meet the Manufacturers is available on all of the world's biggest podcast platforms, including Apple Podcast.

Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify. Never miss an episode again and subscribe today wherever you get your podcast From. On every episode, we take the opportunity to learn more about a local manufacturing business. Welcome along to the latest episode of Meet the Manufacturers, and I'm excited to be joined by Marsha Laina, who is the president of Penn Globe Lighting Design and Manufacturing in North Branford.

And Greg Michaelson, who is the managing principal of Standish Executive Search based in Gilford, Connecticut. Now, Greg is also the chair of the scholarship subcommittee, which is part of the workforce development c. Marsha and Greg are here today to talk about the inaugural launch of the Manufacture CT Annual Scholarship Program.

Exciting times. So Marsha and Greg, welcome to meet the manufacturers. Thanks, Claire. Thank

you, Claire. Very nice to be here today.

Fabulous. It's great to have you. Now, I'm super excited about this cuz this is brand new and exciting for manufacture ct. Tell me a little bit about these scholarships and how they came about.

Greg, that would be great if you could.

I'd love to and we couldn't be more excited about this. This is a topic that we've had on our agenda for a number of years now when we've. We've wanted to offer these scholarships to people pursuing careers in manufacturing to help support both those individuals as well as the manufacturing companies in our great state of Connecticut.

So we're finally glad to be kicking this off and offering them this

year. It's super exciting. It really is, and it's an area where manufacturing in Connecticut has really struggled workforce development. Maintaining your workforce is all hot potato topics, I would say in the Connecticut State. So this will hopefully go some way to encouraging more people to get involved.

So tell me what scholarships are available. There's nine available in total, isn't there?

That's correct. Nine total. One of which is a $1,000 scholarship called the Chris Lorch Memorial Scholarship, and that one is available to rising seniors who are pursuing a career in manufacturing, either by going off to college or by entering the workforce directly.

One sort of unique requirement for that $1,000 scholarship is that the person applying be related to a manufacturer CT member company. The other eight scholarships are $500 scholarships. Those are being offered by manufacturer CT to rising seniors. Again, pursuing a manufacturing career, either through direct entrance into the workforce or through college education.

So we're essentially looking for seniors looking to go into manufacturing. And there's nine scholarships available. One for a thousand, but must be related to somebody who is within the manufactured CT community. And we've got eight other scholarships that are up for grabs.

Yes, correct. And those eight other scholarships are $500 each.

Fabulous. Now, talk to me a little bit about scholarships in general. Obviously this is the first time that Manufacture CT has offered it. You, within your work and your business, and also you, Marsha, have you worked with scholarships before in training young people into this sort of role from. Been a senior.

I have

not personally worked with people who have pursued scholarships. I've certainly seen the impact because for a pretty portion of my career I was working in the manufacturing industry and running manufacturing companies. And so many of the employees that worked for those companies benefited from scholarships, like those being offered by manufacturer ct.

Meet the manufacturer's podcast on behalf of manufacturer. CT is created and produced by Red Rock Branding. Red rock branding.com. If you are enjoying this episode, please subscribe to and share this podcast today. Oh, it's fabulous. Now, Marsha, how did they, uh, rope you into getting involved with the scholarship program?

I

think just because I have a little bit of working knowledge of the workforce arena and the ecosystem here in Connecticut, not just from the manufacturing side, employer side, but from also the students side. So I like Greg. I never have participated in a scholarship program, but I'm excited about this one in particular.

I really feel like we're meeting the moment here in Connecticut. We're pushing hard for, particularly for young people to realize that a scholarship does not have to be the equivalent of going to a college, and that it's okay to enter directly into the workforce and to provide financial assistance for students who are choosing that path.

I believe truly meets the moment we're all in

Absolut. Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. It's something that comes up time and time and time again is, you know, how are we gonna recruit the manufacturers of the future? And there's been lots of great ideas coming through on the manufacturer, meet the manufacturer's podcast about the avenues at which we try to reach potential people who could enter the workforce.

But you know, put your money where your mouth is. Money does talk and hopefully. This will spur people onto to get involved and apply for these scholarships? Well, perhaps

Greg and I can give a hypothetical, if a student from Greater New Haven was offered a position at Electric Boat on the other side of the state, they have real financial needs, housing, you know, security deposit for an apartment for, you know, some kind of affordable housing.

You know, there are real cost, real life situations where scholarships can

really be useful. Yeah. Really make the difference. So come on. Applications. When's the deadline? That's what people are gonna be needing to know. Applications

You heard it here first, March the 31st is the deadline to get your application in, and how do people apply?

Well, the easiest way is to go onto the manufacturer CT website and you'll find a link there where you can complete the online application. And it's a relatively simple, one page, page and a half application requires the upload. One letter of recommendation. It's easy to find,

super easy. Hit the website manufacturer ct.org and then when is the lucky news?

When are the awardees announced?

Goodness me. So not long to go now. So you do need to get a bit of a wiggle on if you are interested in applying for a scholarship, you need to hit that website, manufacture ct.org and apply for that scholarship. I also know that packs have been sent out, haven't they?

To guidance counselors as well as been on the website. So hopefully, uh, word will reach as many ears as possible so people can take advantage of the inaugural launch of the Manufacture CT Scholarship program. It's exciting stuff, guys. It really. Thank you. It is,

I would like to make sure we say here to, uh, remind everyone this is a statewide scholarship.

It's open to any student anywhere within the state of Connecticut.

Absolutely anywhere. You know, and Connecticut has this rich history of manufacturing and uh, it's great that we're kind of investing back in the future of manufacturing through this scholarship program. So I'm super excited about it and helping students enter the Connecticut workforce, which is even.

Yes,

Claire. It is exciting. And I'd like to also reinforce again, that traditionally scholarships were offered only to those pursuing, you know, further education. And in this case, what makes these so unique is that they're available to people, whether they are going off to college or whether they are pursuing career in manufacturing, going directly into the

workforce.

You've got it, you've. There you go. Job done. Greg, you've just told them. Make sure you check it out on the website. Manufacture ct.org. Your application is due in by the end of March. That's March 31st with awardees being announced on May the 15th. All the criteria is on the website. Get involved. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of Meet the Manufacturers brought to you by Manufacture ct.

If you would like to find out more about manufactureCT. Or you would like to join the organization, visit the website, manufacture ct.org. This podcast is sponsored by Cone Resnick Advisory Assurance Tax. Visit their website, cone resnick.com. If you have enjoyed listening to this episode and want to find out more about the vibrant and thriving manufacturing community in Connecticut, subscribe to and share this podcast.

Meet the Manufacturers is available on all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify. This podcast was created and produced by Red Rock Branding. Red Rock branding.com.