For today’s college students looking to increase their real-world skills and enhance their marketability to potential employers, ASTM International is offering its “Jumpstart Your Career” initiative throughout 2011. Highlighted by ASTM student membership opportunities, senior design project grants, a student video contest, scholarships and more, the campaign is aimed at expanding student knowledge and involvement in the diverse field of standards.

ASTM International Student Membership on the Rise
Launched in January, the Jumpstart Your Career campaign has helped boost ASTM International’s popular Student Membership category by more than 400 students during the past year. At the end of the spring 2011 semester, student membership in ASTM had grown to include 5,280 college and university students from more than 70 countries. Established in 2003, ASTM student membership is offered at no cost to full-time graduate or undergraduate students and includes a wide range of benefits that facilitate student exposure to the field of standards. See more information at www.astm.org/studentmember.

Engaging the Educator Community
An important thrust of ASTM International’s academic outreach efforts is focused on assisting university and college professors in integrating standards education into their teaching. To achieve this goal, ASTM offers affordable and flexible access to its vast library of standards through its Standards on Campus product, enabling professors to include a package of up to 10 ASTM standards in their course materials. Professors can also bring standards experts directly to their campus through ASTM’s on-campus seminar program. These sessions provide students with an up close look at the standards development process through presentations and discussions with ASTM members and staff. 

“ASTM International’s Jumpstart Your Career initiative offers students valuable programs and resources for gaining a working knowledge of standards and increasing their technical skills,” says Joel D. Bumgardner, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, University of Memphis. “ASTM also makes it easy for educators to integrate standards into our coursework. I’ve used ASTM standards extensively in my undergraduate biomaterials course, where students have found them to be great learning tools, especially in senior design projects. This first-hand experience with standards has helped several of my former students gain job offers with companies in the competitive biomedical device field.”

Student Video Contest Deadline Extended
Among the programs highlighting the second half of the Jumpstart Your Career campaign is the ASTM International Student Video Contest. The contest provides a forum for students to showcase their ability to apply ASTM standards in a class project, lab environment, and other applications. Students must create a video performing an entire ASTM International test method or practice and submit it to ASTM for judging. Deadline for the contest has been extended to Oct. 31, 2011. Cash awards will be given to the first-, second- and third- place winning videos. Further information is available at www.astm.org/campus.

Grants Available for Graduate or Senior Design Projects
Students can also take advantage of $500 project grants available from ASTM International to support the completion of their graduate or senior capstone design projects. To be eligible for the grant, student design projects must contain an ASTM International standards component.  A limited number of project grants are still available and the application deadline is Oct. 31, 2011. For additional information, and to download an application form, visit www.astm.org/studentmember/projectGrants.html.

Two Doctoral Students Win ASTM International 2011 Graduate Scholarship
ASTM International has announced that University of Arkansas student Santosh Narasimhachary and University of Southern California student Mark Blanchette are the recipients of the 2011 ASTM International Graduate Scholarship. The scholarship rewards graduate students (master’s or doctoral) who have demonstrated high levels of interest in or involvement with ASTM International standards.

ASTM Supports Engineering Education through Engineers Week Contribution
Furthering its commitment to the development of new technical leaders, ASTM International has contributed $1000 to support Engineers Week 2012. The event is sponsored by the National Engineers Week Foundation, which delivers programs and resources to help remove the social, education and economic barriers that deter young students from engineering and technology education and careers. Additional information can be accessed at www.eweek.org.

For more information on the ASTM International Jumpstart Your Career campaign and the various programs available to students, visit www.astm.org/campus or contact Jim Olshefsky, ASTM director of external relations, at jolshefs@astm.org. Additional information and links can also be found at the ASTM student member fan pages on Facebook and Twitter.

ASTM Staff Contact: Jim Olshefsky, Phone: 610-832-9714; jolshefs@astm.org
ASTM PR Contact: Barbara Schindler, Phone: 610-832-9603; bschindl@astm.org      

Release #8955