Welcome
The Paper Technology Foundation, a 501(c)3 corporation, was established in 1958. The mission of the Paper Technology Foundation is to recruit students for the Paper Engineering and Paper Science programs and Chemical Engineering students pursuing paper engineering minors at Western Michigan University and to provide those students with competitive scholarships. Careful, directed recruiting, provision of competitive scholarships, and co-op and intern placements are strategies and tools that ensure that we provide strong leaders for the paper and allied industries well into the future.
Western Michigan University, at their Parkview campus, has made an unprecedented and unequaled investment in the Paper Science and Paper Engineering programs. Western’s Parkview campus is a $72 million investment in engineering and research and includes a modern 1 meter wide pilot coater with multiple coating application capabilities. During the past five decades, our industry has undergone dramatic change and the programs at the university continue to evolve to meet these challenges. The Parkview campus provides our student body with the most modern and most capable educational and research facilities available in any Paper Science or Paper Engineering school in the nation.
Our industry will continue to evolve in ways that will challenge the ability of universities to provide technically trained individuals to the industry. Western Michigan University is prepared to answer that challenge and to provide talented and motivated graduates who are academically positioned to lead the future generation. Industry change and evolution provides an extremely exciting time for a young person to enter our industry. Changes in the way we work, game-changing leaps in technology as well as the continued globalization and often privatization of both the paper industry and the U.S. economy will make the coming years unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime.
The Paper Technology Foundation Board of Trustees will continue to challenge our faculty while providing assistance to augment and enhance the pulp and paper programs by reflecting critical needs of the industry, by adding value to the degrees offered by the University, and by enhancing the reputation of the programs over the coming years.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:
- We experienced our fifth straight successful recruiting year since the focus began in 2004. 19 freshmen enrolled in Paper Science and Paper Engineering programs as majors and 1 freshman enrolled in the Chemical Engineering program with the pulp and paper minor for the fall 2009 semester. 4 students also transferred into the program as majors. We awarded 56 scholarships for a total of $113,120 in the 2009-2010 school year.
- Of our returning sophomores, 8 were majors and 3 were minors in Paper Science and Paper Engineering in the fall of 2009; 9of those students had a 3.0 or greater GPA.
- In our Junior class, 10 were majors; and 3 held minors; 4 students held a 3.0 GPA or higher.
- Our Senior class had 7 paper majors; 7 paper minors and 5 pulp and paper options. 8 students held a 3.0 or higher GPA.
- Demonstrated leadership on the part of many students is as evident as their strong academic performance and their involvement in the University community activities. Last year PCI students placed second in the CEAS Spring Engineering Week activities!
- Our graduates continue to be well received by the industry and are being placed at salaries starting in the neighborhood of $65,000 annually.
- An all time high in student employment engagement was reached for the summer ’10 work opportunities. Corporate members of the Board of Trustees came forth with 31 co-ops and internships to ensure that the education offered has both practical and academic components.
- Western Michigan University's Parkview Coater is achieving the potential that was anticipated when the investment was committed by providing industry with a much-needed resource for research and development in an economically viable and proprietary fashion. We continue to provide pilot work, research and testing services to the industry in pulping, bleaching, papermaking, coating, printing, and recycling. All of this is accomplished on commercially relevant equipment, in user friendly facilities and in a cooperative atmosphere. We continue to encourage new clients to utilize these facilities and welcome those clients we have gained over the past years.
The Paper Technology Foundation has experienced a remarkable track record, and we are most grateful to our alumni, friends, and corporate donors who continue to make it possible. We invite you to visit our new facilities at your convenience.
Our mission remains clear: we are about the business of recruiting, and educating motivated and talented students to earn their places of leadership in our industry.
Our Foundation's stewardship is outstanding as the funds are co-mingled with the Western Michigan University Foundation for investment purposes and the investment earnings have been 9.9% through the end of 2007 and over the past 10 years. 2008 -2009 proved to be a challenging year with losses of 38.3%. The endowment has recovered substantially and we are hoping the US and global economy will achieve a robust recovery.
We use 4.5% of the corpus annually for scholarships and never touch the principle of our true endowments thereby ensuring sustainability and growth of the Foundation while providing a generous award to the best and brightest students interested in advancing the global pulp and paper and related industries.
Investment in the Paper Technology Foundation, therefore, is an important public statement about a commitment to Western Michigan University the Paper Technology Foundation, and the Pulp and Paper Industry which is guaranteed to be sustainable and provide leadership for the future.
We invite you to join us in this venture and to participate in our sustained commitment to our students and the Pulp and Paper and Allied Industry's future.
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Charles R. Young |
John F. Bergin ('66) |