Jakob Milani
Contributing Writer
[email protected]
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is awarding 30 new scholarships to students pursuing civil engineering and engineering technology degrees.
The KYTC has offered two scholarship programs for over 70 years: THE Civil Engineering Scholarship and the Civil Engineering Technology Scholarship. These two scholarships help students pay their tuition as well as guarantee jobs.
The Civil Engineering Scholarship is for students whose focus is on a four-year engineering degree at Murray State, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University or Kentucky State University. The scholarship awards 10-20 new students and is worth up to $51,000, ranging anywhere from $6,200 to $6,600 per semester.
The Civil Engineering Technology Scholarship is partnered with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and awards $3,000 per semester to students to complete an associates degree in civil engineering.
Karim Farokhnia, a civil engineering professor at Murray State, spoke about how important these scholarships are for students majoring in civil engineering.
“Going to college or university can be expensive and scholarships will definitely help with required financial support for them to pursue their academic path and to turn their dream jobs into reality,” Farokhnia said. “Hence, knowledge of such available scholarships, such as the ones provided by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, can be a life changer for some students, especially for those with less resources but big dreams.”
Farokhnia also discussed the difficulties of being a civil engineering major at Murray State, saying the location of the University leaves students at a disadvantage.
“The fact that Murray State, along with its nearby towns and communities, are located within considerably long distances from major socioeconomic hubs of the surrounding states, including Kentucky, the availability of financial resources are relatively limited,” Farokhnia said. “On the other hand, Murray State has fallen behind in competition with other universities within the state of Kentucky for absorbing state resources or private sector funds for growth and development, and such financial hardship essentially flows down to students and their educational resources at Murray State.”
Finally, Farokhnia talked about how other financial support would help both the students and the civil engineering program, especially with the program’s lab equipment.
“One vital channel of financial support that can ultimately help engineering students with their educational quality is helping engineering departments with their engineering laboratory equipment purchases,” Farokhnia said. “At the civil engineering program within the School of Engineering here at Murray State, there are several engineering laboratories, such as soil mechanics lab, concrete lab or surveying lab, that can benefit from replacing old equipment with new ones or adding state of the art equipment for students to operate. I sincerely encourage potential donors with financial resources to reach out to us at the School of Engineering and support the educational path of engineering students, or in fact future engineers of our communities.”
Both of these scholarships are available to current and future Murray State students. The deadline to apply is Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, and all recipients will be notified in April.
