The Hickman Endowment, a 20-year old program to support college students in real-world research and operations projects, has announced it will be a major supporter of the National Solid Waste Design Competition, a program of SWANA’s Young Professionals (YP) Initiative. The National Solid Waste Design Competition is a university-level student team competition to solve a real world problem faced by solid waste professionals. The first competition in August 2015 drew four teams and was won by students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Five teams have signed up for the 2016 competition with presentations and judging to occur at WASTECON – Indianapolis in late August.
The Hickman Endowment will contribute up to $5,000 toward prizes for the 2016 Solid Waste Design Competition. In future years, the Endowment has committed to contribute up to 7% per year of its balance toward the Competition. “The field of Solid Waste Management continues to offer challenging, life-long careers for young people interested in engineering, the sciences, the environment, and public policy,” said H. Lanier (Lanny) Hickman, Jr., SWANA’s first executive director (1978 to 1996). “Like the Hickman Internship Program, the Solid Waste Design Competition gives top university students the opportunity to experience that for themselves. It can’t help but interest them in the field and their career possibilities.”
The Endowment will also make available tuition assistance of $2,500 each for two competitors selected from all participating teams in return for completing a professor-supervised, for credit, research project on a topic related to preventing, processing or management of solid waste. Three efforts are planned to help replenish the funds committed by the Endowment to YP Initiative programs: A voluntary donation on SWANA member forms; a donation option on SWANA’s website; and a fundraising campaign among SWANA chapters and Past Presidents. Members of SWANA’s YP Initiative are pleased by the financial commitment and appreciate the opportunity to gain support from long-time SWANA members like the Past Presidents. “The YP Initiative Steering Committee could not be more pleased with the partnership and support of the Hickman Endowment,” said Nathan Mayer, P.E., a Steering Committee member who works for the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County as well as overseeing the Competition. “Our goal is to introduce YPs to solid waste management by attracting more universities and more students to the Competition, which hopefully encourages them to make a career of it.”
For more information, visit www.swana.org.