NCS Announces COVID-19 Response Scholarship Drive

The National Center for Simulation (NCS) 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.

M&S Student Day at the University of Central Florida on February 19, 2020. Image credit: NCS.

The resulting scholarships of at least $1000 each will go tostudents who have been affected by the virus, directly or indirectly, and whoare pursuing STEM-related degrees or career fields that support MS&T. Oneof NCS’ key objectives is to support the development of the future MS&Tworkforce, 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 beenfortunate to continue operations and support to the military and othersimulation-based industry sectors. Through this program, NCS hopes to garneroverwhelming support from the community to help lift some of the financialburden of higher education for students, or their supporting families, who havelost their jobs or been displaced during the pandemic quarantine.

“As we look around our community, we notice that most of ourindustry are still working, yet many Central Florida students and their parentshave been significantly impacted by COVID-19. We want to help relieve some ofthat burden and that’s why we launched the MS&T Community COVID-19 ResponseScholarship Drive,” stated NCS president and CEO George Cheros. “We immediatelyhad 100% of our staff and our board of directors commit by donating.”

As the program launched last week, NCS offered to match thefirst $5,000 of donations. The match was immediately called by a $5,000contribution from the local chapter of the National Defense IndustrialAssociation, bringing the launch totals to well over $10,000.

“The Central Florida Chapter of NDIA is proud to stand aspartners with NCS,” said chapter president Tony Krogh. “Our community isfortunate in many ways, and this effort to help the workforce of the futurealigns with our charter’s priorities to support the defense industrial base.”

UCF’s new president, Dr. Alexander Cartwright, applauded theNCS efforts to rally the MS&T community to action. “Orlando’s ability toinnovate and its compassion for its people will help us recover from the manychallenges COVID-19 has caused, especially for students and their families. Weare grateful to NCS, NDIA and all of our modeling and simulation partners forthese efforts to support future employees and leaders in this criticalindustry.”

“We are seeing many different efforts to provide help – somefolks are focused on making and distributing masks, while other are sorting anddelivering food,” explained Cheros. “This scholarship campaign is just onesmall way that we can do our part, and NCS is challenging our industrypartners, as well as others in our community, to get involved as we providescholarships to students who need help.”

Companies or individuals who want to contribute should NSC’website to make a contribution online. If other payment alternatives areneeded, they can email NSC for further guidance.

Applications for students to apply for the MS&TCommunity COVID-19 Response Scholarships will be available on the NCS website beginningMay 4. Scholarships will be awarded no later than August 15, 2020.