When higher education and continuing education are difficult to access, it helps to have companies that are willing to help those in their communities. There are many examples of local breweries doing their part to help the people that they serve. These companies often arise in small communities where kids might have a hard time getting to college. Read further to understand how these companies can make higher education or continuing education easier for kids to access in the modern-day.
The $1000 Scholarship
Melvin Brewing has started a scholarship program that will give $1000 to the winners as part of their growth. These students might plan to go to college, trade school, or some sort of vocational school. The scholarship is a simple way for the company to reach out to the community, and it helps kids add needed funds as they head off to college.
The scholarship is another accolade that kids can add to their resumes, and it might also help them obtain internships or jobs in the interim. Melvin Brewing believes that it should help as many kids as it can.
This means that the scholarship will continue to help a new kid every year. The student who goes into the program can quickly earn their certificate in brewing, and they can get to work in the field as quickly as they like. This is an excellent trade for kids who do not want to go to a four-year college, and it is also a good way for the company to find new employees. As students consider more career options in the digital age, they might come back to the ancient art of brewing.
Dakota County Technical College
A company called Grey Duck Media is also offering a scholarship, but this scholarship is specific to its industry. They are the parent company of The Beer Dabbler, and they would like to pay it forward to the community in a positive way. First of all, it is very important to remember that these companies want to impact their communities. This is why they have a partner in their venture.
The brewery wants to offer a scholarship for all aspiring brewers who are members of the LGBTQ community. They have partnered with Dakota Community College to offer a full ride to any student who qualifies for the scholarship. This type of scholarship helps kids go into an industry that they love while also helping them go to a local college. The Pride in Brewing Scholarship is just one way that The Beer Dabbler and Grey Duck Media can reach the community-at-large.
Glen Hay Falconer Foundation Brewing Scholarship
The Glen Hay Falconer Foundation wants to help those who plan to go into the brewing industry by offering a scholarship to a local school. This scholarship allows students to attend the Siebel Institute as they learn how to work in brewing. These students might have just graduated from high school, or they might have considered a new career path.
The scholarship program offers two prizes to those who live in the Mountain West from Utah and Wyoming or Colorado to Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, California, or Hawaii. The wide reach of the program allows people from all walks of life and socioeconomic backgrounds to apply. It is very important to the foundation that they allow students to learn the trade, obtain gainful employment, or even dream of starting their own breweries.
Diversity In Brewing
One of the areas that people often miss is diversity in brewing. This is very important because the kids who want to go into brewing are often not from the same background as the owners of breweries. It can be difficult for kids of color to get jobs in the industry, and that is why there are new scholarships and programs that help these kids go into the field.
The Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling along with Craft x EDU are new initiatives offering kids a chance to learn to brew. Students who grow up in the inner city are often not exposed to the art of brewing, and they do not have any local breweries they can visit. Plus, there is no pipeline for hiring brewers of color. These foundations hope to change that by sending kids to school and allowing them to get the training they need.
The MJF alone has $30,000 that it can use from an existing scholarship fund, and it hopes to send as many kids as possible to school for brewing. Only one percent of brewery owners and 0.6 percent of brewers are black. This number can be changed with purposeful stewardship of scholarship and foundation funds.
Continuing Education Is A Priority For Breweries
The scholarships listed above show that local breweries want to give kids a chance to learn a new trade. These simple programs can send kids to school so that they can learn a trade that most would not have considered in the past. Plus, these programs are helping to diversify a field that does not have the level of minority representation that it should have in the 21st Century.