Scholarships
and encourages students to peruse for additional scholarship opportunities listed here.
Mike Sale Memorial Scholarship
The Mike Sale Memorial Scholarship will promote graduate-level research in specific areas associated with and to benefit the waterpower industry and its environmental management practices.
Mike Sale was a huge presence in the hydropower community. He served over 25 years as a distinguished research staff member and manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory before retiring in 2008. Not one to rest, Mike became an independent consultant and invaluable member of numerous technical teams offering support on energy, water and environmental issues, including for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind and Water Power Technologies Program.
Mike was a charter member of the Low Impact Hydropower Institute’s governing board and served as Executive Director from 2013 to 2016 during a critical period of the organization’s development. Mike led efforts to undertake the first major revision to LIHI’s certification criteria and handbook since its founding in 2000. Mike’s leadership strengthened LIHI’s ability to offer market-based opportunities for hydropower operators to lower their environmental, recreational and cultural impacts. The revisions he oversaw expanded ways for key criteria to be satisfied, placed new emphasis on the scientific basis for agency recommendations and mitigation measures and opened new opportunities for longer term certificates.
Mike also served as a member of the Hydropower Foundation and its predecessor, the Hydro Research Foundation, since its inception in 1994. He was an invaluable member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors serving until his passing. He had a deep love for hydropower and its value to the electric system, and continually emphasized the importance of improving the resource through science based investigation and problem solving.
Julie A. Keil
Women in Hydro Scholarship
The Julie A. Keil Women in Hydro Scholarship Fund provides:
- An education scholarship program for women enrolled in an accredited college or university and majoring in a discipline relevant to entering the hydropower industry. The scholarship will be based on merit and financial need.
- Grants to women who plan to enter the hydropower industry to assist in expenses to attend industry events.
Julie Keil promoted hydropower as renewable energy technology and a responsible steward of the nation’s water resources. She helped bring disparate and often dissenting individuals together to work towards common goals through her leadership, courage, and strength. Her keen negotiating skills helped create outcomes that reflected fair dealing and the intricate relationship among engineering, the environment, and economics. In addition, she brought uncommon energy, persistence, and enthusiasm to all her efforts on behalf of the hydropower
community.
- To read more about Julie, her life, and many accomplishments, click here.
Past Chairs’ Legacy Scholarship
Who: (1) current college sophomores or juniors who will be college juniors or seniors beginning fall 2023, or graduate students with a minimum cumulative 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent) who are enrolled in a full-time undergraduate or graduate course of study at an accredited four-year college or university; or (2) Applicants must be students with an equivalent GPA at an accredited vocational technical school or program. All applicants must be U.S. Citizens or legal residents.
Applicant must be pursuing a program of study that is related to the hydropower industry: Engineering, sciences (biology, fisheries, and hydrology), communications, or environmental studies.
Application: Click here to access scholarship site.
Applications will be accepted January 2, 2024 to February 15, 2024.
Send applications to:
The National Hydropower Association
Scholarship Management Services
Saint Peter, MN 5608
Midwest Hydro Users Group Scholarship
This scholarship is open to students who are:
- high school seniors or students entering their first or second year of a 2-year or 4-year school,
- accepted to or enrolled in Midwestern universities, colleges, and technical schools (a list of eligible states for schooling is provided in the application), and
- interested in a career supporting the hydropower industry (an example list of target programs is provided in the application).
