Two Washington state students are among 100 winners of Amazon Future Engineer college scholarships, the company announced this week.
This is the second year that Amazon has selected high school students from across the U.S. to receive $40,000 to study computer science at the college of their choice. Winners also received an offer of a paid internship at the tech giant next summer as well as a selection of “college essentials” including a Prime Student membership, Fire HD 8 tablet, and $100 credit to use for college textbook needs.
Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke wrote about the program in a blog post in which he said that winners come from 30 states and that one is from Puerto Rico. Fifty percent of the students identify as female, he said. A video captured some of the winners receiving the news:
The winners from Washington state are Preston Rivas and Zoe Lewis-Shunk.
Rivas graduated from Burlington-Edison High School in Burlington, Wash., earlier this month and plans to attend the University of Washington and study at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science.
“I’m excited about this scholarship because college is expensive,” Rivas said. “This scholarship takes some of the stress off of having to pay for it. I’m even more excited about the internship. The idea of getting some in-the-field experience in a subject I love is ideal. Having it be with Amazon makes it all the more exciting.”
Lewis-Shunk attended Orcas Island High School and also plans to study computer science at the UW — although she noted that she’s on a waitlist for Stanford University.
“I’m really excited about winning this scholarship because it was a huge boost in covering my tuition and I get to intern for Amazon next summer,” she said. “I’m really excited for the internship because of the potential bonding and software engineering experiences.”
The first group of winners in 2019 included three students from Washington.
Launched in 2018, Amazon Future Engineer is taking the childhood-to-career approach to inspire and educate children and young adults. It’s part of Amazon’s $50 million investment in computer science/STEM education. The company has donated more than $10 million to organizations that promote such programs across the country.
Some of this year’s winners also had surprise video chats with celebrities and athletes, including Seattle Seahawks player Emmanuel Ellerbee, Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, country singer Carly Pearce, and country duo Maddie and Tae.
Ellerbee, who played college football at Rice, told students about the power of an engineering degree.
“There’s no job that you can’t do once you have an engineering degree,” Ellerbee said. “I’m in the NFL now, and when I try to do something to further my mind and expand my mind, there’s not an internship that I feel like I could go for that would tell me, ‘You know what, you’re not our type of guy.'”
