Menu
National Center for Simulation Announces COVID-19 Response Scholarship Drive
April 20, 2020—Orlando, Florida. The National Center for Simulation (NCS) announced today that it launched a scholarship campaign within the modeling, simulation & training (MS&T) industry to help more students with tuition and educational expenses during the recovery phase of COVID-19.
The resulting scholarships of at least $1000 each will go to students who have been affected by the virus, directly or indirectly, and who are pursuing STEM-related degrees or career fields that support MS&T. One of NCS’ key objectives is to support the development of the future MS&T workforce, and in the last five years the organization has awarded over $100,000 in scholarships and in support of STEM education programs.
During the pandemic, the MS&T industry has largely been fortunate to continue operations and support to the military and other simulation-based industry sectors. Through this program, NCS hopes to garner overwhelming support from the community to help lift some of the financial burden of higher education for students, or their supporting families, who have lost their jobs or been displaced during the pandemic quarantine.
“As we look around our community, we notice that most of our industry are still working, yet many Central Florida students and their parents have been significantly impacted by COVID-19. We want to help relieve some of that burden and that’s why we launched the MS&T Community COVID-19 Response Scholarship Drive,” stated NCS president and CEO George Cheros. “We immediately had 100% of our staff and our board of directors commit by donating.”
As the program launched last week, NCS offered to match the first $5,000 of donations. The match was immediately called by a $5,000 contribution from the local chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association, bringing the launch totals to well over $10,000.
“The Central Florida Chapter of NDIA is proud to stand as partners with NCS,” said chapter president Tony Krogh. “Our community is fortunate in many ways, and this effort to help the workforce of the future aligns with our charter’s priorities to support the defense industrial base.”
UCF’s new president, Dr. Alexander Cartwright, applauded the NCS efforts to rally the MS&T community to action. “Orlando’s ability to innovate and its compassion for its people will help us recover from the many challenges COVID-19 has caused, especially for students and their families. We are grateful to NCS, NDIA and all of our modeling and simulation partners for these efforts to support future employees and leaders in this critical industry.”
“We are seeing many different efforts to provide help — some folks are focused on making and distributing masks, while other are sorting and delivering food,” explained Cheros. “This scholarship campaign is just one small way that we can do our part, and NCS is challenging our industry partners, as well as others in our community, to get involved as we provide scholarships to students who need help.”
Companies or individuals who want to contribute should visit www.all-ncs.com to make a contribution online. If other payment alternatives are needed, they can email ncs@simulationinformation.com for further guidance.
Applications for students to apply for the MS&T Community COVID-19 Response Scholarships will be available on the NCS website, www.simulationinformation.com, beginning May 4. Scholarships will be awarded no later than August 15, 2020.
About National Center for Simulation. NCS is a non-profit trade association whose vision is to lead the growth of modeling, simulation and training. NCS is committed to promoting MS&T technology expansion, supporting education and workforce development, and providing business development support to its members. www.simulationinformation.com
