Wisconsin EVA Scholarship

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in cars. I was the kid who could name every model on the road and was always asking how engines worked. That interest has only grown over the years, and now I’m taking the next step by enrolling in the Automotive Maintenance Technician program at Milwaukee Area Technical College. As the car industry changes and electric vehicles become more common, I want to be part of that future. This scholarship would help me continue my studies and prepare for a career in the electric vehicle sector. One of the biggest ways this scholarship would help me is by easing the financial pressure of school. Learning to work on cars, especially electric vehicles, requires special tools, equipment, and classes. These things can be expensive, and having financial support would allow me to focus more on learning instead of worrying about how to pay for everything. By receiving this scholarship, I’d be able to get the materials I need to understand not only traditional gas engines but also high voltage systems, electric motors, and modern vehicle technology. In my program, hands-on experience is extremely important. Electric vehicles especially require careful training because of their advanced electronics and safety procedures. This scholarship would make it easier for me to participate fully in workshops, lab sessions, and other learning opportunities. Instead of having to take extra work hours or skip valuable practice time, I’d be able to put my energy into building real skills that will help me in my career. Another benefit of this scholarship is that it would allow me to work toward important certifications. As more car companies create electric vehicles, the need for trained technicians is growing quickly. Earning certifications related to EV safety, diagnostics, and maintenance would make me more prepared for the jobs that are coming in the future. These certifications can be costly, but this scholarship would help make them possible for me. Overall, this scholarship would bring me closer to my goal of becoming an automotive technician who understands both traditional cars and the new wave of electric vehicles. I want to help people feel confident choosing cleaner, more efficient transportation, and I want to be part of the team that keeps those vehicles running safely and reliably. This scholarship would not only support my education but also help turn my lifelong interest in cars into a real career. With your help, I would be able to get the training I need and take full advantage of the opportunities at Milwaukee Area Technical College. It would make a huge difference in my journey toward working in the electric vehicle industry.

Electric vehicles represent more than a shift in drivetrain technology, they mark a fundamental transformation in how transportation systems are designed, manufactured, and sustained. Growing up in Wisconsin, where automotive knowledge is often developed through hands-on experience, I have seen how quickly new technologies can outpace the availability of skilled professionals, especially in smaller or underserved communities. This gap is especially visible with electric vehicles, where advanced systems require a workforce prepared to manufacture, service, and support them safely and reliably. My ambition is to help bridge that gap by contributing to the manufacturing and process systems that make electric vehicles practical, trustworthy, and widely accessible. I am pursuing a degree in Engineering Technology Management with an emphasis on manufacturing and quality systems. My academic focus is reinforced by hands-on experience in both manufacturing and healthcare engineering environments. As a Manufacturing Engineering Intern at Alliant Power, I collaborated with production and engineering teams to improve efficiency, update quality procedures to meet various ISO and ASTM standards, and support safety and compliance initiatives. This experience demonstrated how disciplined manufacturing processes directly influence product reliability and long-term performance, critical factors for building confidence in electric vehicle adoption. My drive comes from consistently seeking responsibility beyond required coursework. I currently serve as Treasurer and Shop Manager for my university’s Automotive Enthusiasts Club, where I manage budgets, oversee shared shop resources, and coordinate vehicle-related projects. Working in a shop environment has strengthened my understanding of serviceability and safety, issues that are particularly important for electric vehicles operating in regions with limited access to specialized technicians. I am motivated not only by innovation, but by practicality, ensuring that emerging vehicle technologies can be manufactured and maintained efficiently across a wide range of communities. This scholarship would have a direct and meaningful impact on my educational path. As a student supporting my education independently, financial constraints influence the opportunities I am able to pursue, including technical certifications, specialized coursework, and internships. Support from the Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Association would allow me to continue developing skills in manufacturing optimization, quality assurance, and process improvement, areas that are essential to scaling electric vehicle production and service infrastructure within the state. My long-term goal is to work as a quality or process improvement engineer in the electric vehicle industry, helping design manufacturing systems that prioritize safety, efficiency, and workforce readiness. By improving how electric vehicles are built and supported, I hope to contribute to broader adoption, particularly in smaller Wisconsin communities where EV expertise is still emerging. This scholarship would not only support my education, but amplify the impact I aim to make in advancing sustainable transportation.

It will help me afford the education I need firstly. Cost is always the biggest barrier to just about any specialised technical field, and working on vehicles is a field that I want to enter despite the barrier of entry. More specifically, I wish to build and design performance vehicle vehicles—I like the idea of making things go fast. But not simply going fast, I want to see things perform to their absolute best. The most efficient motors, the most aerodynamic vehicles, the most aesthetically pleasing vehicles, I want to build all of them. There is a school in Texas called the Tuner School, hosted by Hennessy Performance, some of the most famous tuners in the world. I want to go there and take their program and become a tuner myself, and I want to build performance vehicle. With the proliferation of EVs and mass electrification of many parts of the world, performance EVs are a niche waiting to be filled. The sports cars and the supercars of tomorrow are waiting to be built and I want to be one of the people who builds them. The scholarship can help me be one of the people who get the chance to design these vehicles, such as the Audi e-tron GT.  I want to find ways to make these quick vehicles even quicker, these fast vehicles even faster. Ways to maximise battery efficiency or motor performance are also keeping them competitive with their ICE counterparts.  The same philosophy extends to hybrid vehicles, especially the way they are treated in modern sports and supercars. Companies will throw a battery pack in a motor in a car that only gives it an extra 30 miles of range, not realising that they are missing out on so much performance just from the electric drive train alone. Whether it’s in hybrid vehicles or fully electric vehicles, I want to fill this gap and being able to afford to go to a school dedicated to building performance vehicles will help me do just that. And once this niche is more developed, the technology can trickle down to even the most simple of commuter cars, and everyone with an electric vehicle can have more efficient batteries, more powerful motors, and better drivability. Just like with traditional cars and how the technology in the highest performance vehicles trickles down to the lower end vehicles, the same can be said of electric vehicles. That’s a gap I wish to feel and that’s a gap that this scholarship can help fill.