Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., which should help students there start careers in the Energy Department’s weapons complex.
South Carolina State, founded in 1896, is the only historically black college or university in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering, the Las Vegas-based Energy Department subcontractor said in a press release.
Under the agreement, Longenecker & Associates will fund scholarships and career mentoring for South Carolina State students. The company will also provide internships at DOE nuclear properties such as the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Nevada National Security Site, the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, and the Hanford Site in Washington state.
In addition, South Carolina State President James Clark will join Longenecker’s board of advisers for a two-year term. “We have a long history of supporting the Department of Energy and Savannah River Site and look forward to the opportunities this partnership will bring,” Clark said in the Longenecker press release.
According to the South Carolina State nuclear engineering website, the program started in 2002 in partnership with the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It began with five students and had grown to 45 as of 2019.
However, the scholarships and internships are not limited to nuclear engineering students, according to a Longenecker official.
