The West Virginia Department of Transportation recently presented the West Virginia University Institute of Technology with a $10,000 check to help support engineering scholarships at the school’s Beckley, WV, campus.
[Above photo by WVDOT]
That $10,000 is prize money from the WVDOT winning the 2024 America’s Transportation Awards People’s Choice Award for its Wellsburg Bridge project, which opened in September 2023 and connects the communities of Wellsburg, WV, and Brilliant, OH.
Determined by public vote, the People’s Choice Award comes with a $10,000 prize to be donated to a charity of the winning state’s choice.
WVDOT Secretary Todd Rumbaugh, a WVU Tech engineering alumnus, recently presented the check in that amount to Steven Leftwich, a civil engineering professor and instructor at the school for the past 38 years.
“A lot of students can’t afford to go to college,” Leftwich said in a statement. “I wasn’t able to get all my degrees without scholarships. This is really going to help our students. We need more scholarships like this.”
Rumbaugh added that he was proud to be able to present the check to help train a new crop of engineers. “They’re our future,” he said.
Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the America’s Transportation Awards competition highlights the positive impact of state departments of transportation projects on communities nationwide. To learn more about this annual contest, click here.
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