National Machinery awards 2021 Engineering Scholarship

Tiffin-based manufacturer National Machinery LLC has awarded their 2021 Engineering Scholarship to Jacob Reinhart, a senior at Carey High School. Both Reinhart's father and grandfather were long-time National Machinery employees. The scholarship program began in 2014, and students from high schools all over the region have been awarded funds. The program provides $10,000 per year for up to five years of undergraduate education for a Bachelor of Science in either Mechanical or Electrical Engineering. National Machinery came up with the idea in 2013 after recognizing the need to incentivize local students to pursue engineering. The company wanted to create a talent pipeline that would bring people with engineering degrees right to their door, a release from the company states. In exchange for the up to $50,000 prize, students who receive the scholarship must commit to paid employment at NM during summer breaks and cooperative education sessions, as well as post-graduation employment at NM for a minimum of five years. The company asks the students to maintain a 3.0 GPA during their academic career as well. The company acknowledged in the May/June 2017 edition of its NATIONAL Notes magazine that they were asking kids to make a big decision. "This is quite a commitment," the article read. "We have 17-18 year old students making a decision that commits them for the next 10 years of their lives." In the seven years since the scholarship's creation, awards weren't given out two of those years. In 2020, NM didn't award any funds due to business uncertainties associated with COVID-19. In 2018, there were no recipients because no one had applied. Originally, the program was only open to students pursuing mechanical engineering, but in 2020, it expanded to include electrical engineering in the hopes of receiving more applicants. A maximum of two high school seniors can now receive the fund each year, but the number of recipients changes every year. In 2014, Ryan Depinet and Kassandra Bodart, both of Hopewell-Loudon High School, each received the money and still work full-time at NM to this day. In 2015, one person won the award — Matt Kimmet of Mohawk High School. Kimmet is currently a mechanical design engineer responsible for one of NM's key product lines. The largest group of recipients came in 2016 — three students won the award, and two have already graduated and began working full-time this January. The 2017 recipient, Scott Clapp, will begin work after graduating this December. After the gap year in 2018, another scholarship was awarded in 2019 to Andrew Daniel of Seneca East and Vanguard Sentinel, who is now studying at The University of Toledo. National Machinery has been in business for nearly 150 years, almost all of which were in Tiffin. The company employs 350 people in Seneca County and 500 worldwide. Their goal to "attract, educate, and train engineers" from their own community has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to local students pursuing higher education.