by sean riley, pmmi, editorial directorthe pmmi foundation offers a financial helping hand for students and continuing education.enlargepmmi, the association for packaging and processing technologies, distributed nearly 100,000 last year through its foundation to advance the education of students with majors involving packaging, package design and package engineering at select colleges and technical schools across north america.&ldquothis is the next generation of the processing and packaging workforce, and it&rsquos important to invest in their future and support their desire to work in this industry,&rdquo says charles d. yuska, president & ceo, pmmi.in 2014, pmmi foundation funds were applied to several initiatives for students, including travel and educational scholarships and contest prizes. pmmi also set aside 40,000 for tuition reimbursement to support continuing education of pmmi member company employees.hundreds of students flocked to pack expopmmi provided 38,000 to help more than 900 students experience pack expo international and pharma expo 2014 last fall. in addition to student travel scholarships, pmmi provided booth space to packaging programs fromalexandria technical & community collegerutgers university california polytechnic state universitysan jose state university clemson universityuniversity of cincinnati dunwoody collegeuniversity of florida hennepin technical collegeuniversity of illinois michigan state universityuniversity of wisconsin &mdash stout purdue university calumetvirginia tech reading area community collegewisconsin indianhead technical college rochester institute of technologyduring the pack solutions challenge, a student contest at pack expo sponsored by b&r industrial automation, teams of students were presented with a complex packaging problem and created solutions with the guidance of mentors from pmmi member companies.the winning teams received scholarship money, which they divided among their student members.first place rutgers university 4,000second place clemson university 2,000third place university of wisconsin &mdash stout 1,000educational scholarshipseach year, the pmmi foundation facilitates the awarding of scholarships to eligible students at colleges and technical schools that partner with pmmi. in 2014 42,500 was distributedmark garvey scholarshipcalifornia polytechnic state university student patrick salibi 2,500claude s. breeden scholarshipfunds totaling 34,000 were awarded to students at alexandria technical & community college, central community collegecolumbus, conestoga collegecraig richardson institute, dunwoody college of technology, greenville technical college, hennepin technical college, purdue university calumet, reading area community college and wisconsin indianhead technical collegec. glenn davis scholarshippurdue university calumet student 1,000art schaefer scholarshipdunwoody college of technology student 1,500richard c. ryan packaging education scholarshipalexandria technical & community college student riley samari 2,000enercon industries&rsquo bill zito scholarshipuniversity of wisconsin &mdash stout student oliver ballinger 1,500&ldquowinning this means a lot to me and will help me continue and complete my packaging engineering degree,&rdquo ballinger writes in a thankyou note to enercon. &ldquoi look forward to what future opportunities can bring.&rdquomark plantier, vice president of marketing, enercon industries, says, &ldquothe bill zito scholarship is one way enercon gives back to the packaging community, supporting exemplary students preparing for a career in the packaging field.&rdquoapplication deadlines for several 2015 scholarships are in the spring. see pmmi.orgscholarships for details.for more information on pmmi&rsquos scholarships, contact dawn smith, education program coordinator, pmmi dsmith@pmmi.org or 571.612.3200. 
