The Gulf Coast Community Foundation has awarded a $61,500 grant to the University of Florida Foundation to continue its support for the UF Innovation Station Sarasota County (UFIS), the first UF engineering extension office. With funds from the GCCF grant, UFIS is providing stipends to selected Gator Engineering students to help them succeed in internships and work/study programs with local industry partners in the Sarasota area. The new grant will enable UFIS to award $3,000 stipends to 20 students. 

GCCF has collaborated with UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering through UFIS since its inception, with the end goal of increasing the base of engineers and innovators who call Sarasota home. During summer 2018, UFIS placed 38 engineering students from UF and the Gator Engineering at State College of Florida program at 27 companies in the Sarasota region. With a previous Gulf Coast Community Foundation grant, UFIS was able to award stipends to 10 of those students. 

“[This] internship has helped solidify my choice of computer engineering and has helped get me more excited for my future as an engineer,” says Ben Pepper, one of the Gator Engineering @ SCF students, who interned at DTC Engineering last summer.