Honeywell Donates
$75K to LFM Program to Boost Diversity
By Monica Nakamine
August 27, 2003
Due to the efforts of Prentis Wilson, LFM ’00 and Director of Global Materials for Business at Honeywell, the Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) program was the recent recipient of a $75,000 donation from the Honeywell Foundation. Funds will be earmarked for female and minority recruitment, undergraduate relations, and participation in conferences. Wilson was accompanied by Amir Allahverdi, Vice President of Operations and Integrated Supply Chain Business, to present the check to LFM Program Director Don Rosenfield at a luncheon on August 14, 2003. Also in attendance were Associate Dean and Director of the Office of Minority Education Leo Osgood, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Department Head Wesley Harris, LFM-SDM Co-Director Bill Hanson, and Director of Operations and Partner Integration Jon Griffith.
Pictured above, from left to right: Jon Griffith, Don Rosenfield Pretis Wilson, Bill Hanson, Professor Osgood, and Professor Harris.
"This generous donation from the Honeywell Foundation will allow LFM-SDM to expand its efforts to attract a more diverse student body to each program,” said Griffith. “Besides helping to defray costs for our attendance at annual conventions such as the Society of Women Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, where we have established a recruiting presence and want to continue to maintain it, the Honeywell grant will allow us to provide scholarships in the LFM program to help attract women and minorities to the program. Honeywell's grant demonstrates a tangible support from a key industry partner in a time of tight finances that will benefit not only the two programs, but the full partnership."
According to Wilson and Allahverdi, Honeywell would like to build a strong and continuous presence at MIT, as well as at other university campuses across the nation, in order to break down stereotypes that students might have about the company. The luncheon turned into a brainstorming session on how Honeywell and MIT can work together to provide resources for and transfer knowledge to each other, for the good of the school, the students, and the company.
“Honeywell designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains complex aerospace systems and is therefore a major stakeholder of MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics,” said Harris. “Graduates in the department are potential employees of Honeywell; therefore, a partnership between MIT and Honeywell creates a ‘win-win’ proposition for all parties.”
“Honeywell has been one of the companies that has been instrumental to the success of LFM,” said Rosenfield. “They have been active in all aspects of LFM and have supported everything we do. We are very grateful for this grant, which further underscores the strength of their support and commitment.”