December 12, 2003

Progress Energy Supports College of Engineering

Buddy Cline (ME ’68), vice president of Distribution Engineering and Operations for Progress Energy, meets Progress Energy scholarship recipients (left to right) Justin Goad, Jonathan Miller, Maaz Aziz, Alex Yacoub and David Forgeng. (Photo: Kathi McBlief)

Progress Energy is a company with a long-standing, strong connection to the College of Engineering at NC State. They support a wide variety of programs, including more annually funded scholarships than any other corporate donor. Progress Energy has also given generously to endowments for students and faculty, vital unrestricted funding, and gifts for upgrading facilities, including renovation of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering student lounge in Broughton Hall and providing a modern lecture hall in Burlington Nuclear Engineering Laboratories. Total giving for the College of Engineering in 2003 was $235,500. In addition, Progress Energy has been a stalwart supporter at NC State of engineering student associations, as well as a major benefactor of the Benjamin Franklin scholars program, a highly selective, dual-degree program between the College of Engineering and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Dr. William L. Roberts, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was the first recipient of the Progress Energy Endowed Faculty Fellow Award. Roberts used the proceeds to support one undergraduate student and one high school intern in aerospace engineering; the results of the research conducted by these students was presented at a national conference, bringing recognition to both the university and the company.

Progress Energy also has an active recruiting program on campus. Students secure good jobs upon graduation, and Progress Energy finds exceptional employees, such as John Maclaga (EE ’95, Multidisciplinary Studies ’95), a Benjamin Franklin graduate of NC State and now a field engineer in Aberdeen, North Carolina. According to Maclaga, “Progress Energy is a great place to work — lots of challenges and change as well as very talented people.”

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