GREENBELT, Md. — Amazon recently announced the 2023 Amazon Future Engine Scholarship recipients. This year, Amazon awarded 400 scholarships, providing a total of $16 million in paid tuition for students to attend the U.S. college or university of their choice.
Seven of the scholarship recipients were surprised with a special Amazon delivery at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland. Through Amazon Future Engineer, the company's global philanthropic education initiative, each student will receive $40,000 over four years to pursue a degree in computer science or engineering and a paid internship after their freshman year to gain practical work experience with mentorship from Amazon leaders.
"Every year, I continue to be inspired by our scholarship recipients’ academic achievements and drive to use their problem-solving abilities to build solutions for their communities,” said Victor Reinoso, global director of Philanthropic Education Initiatives at Amazon. “With students from historically underrepresented and underserved communities representing only 18% of CS bachelor’s degrees, we believe that connecting students to computer science education and opportunities helps create a more equitable and inclusive future, across all industries and sectors, for generations to come."
"I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported me and helped me get this," said student Gabrielle Stewart. "I got a scholarship! I'm going to college!"
Scholarship recipients applied for the opportunity and were selected based on academic achievement, demonstrated leadership, community involvement, work experience, future goals, and financial need.
Amazon said overall, this year's group of recipients is the most diverse yet, with representation from groups that are currently underrepresented in jobs related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). More than 70% of these remarkable students identify as Black, Latino, and Native American, and 50% identify as a woman or nonbinary.