Two Agencies Bolster Mentor and Grant Programs

The Port Authority and the Empire State Development Corp. are supporting programs that assist firms owned by women and minorities in the region.

Agencies Support Mentor, Funding Programs

Seven companies have completed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Mentor-Protégé Program, becoming the first to finish it. The three-year program helps construction firms owned by minorities and women to improve their management, organization, and construction acumen.

The program, which matches experienced contractors with these smaller companies, aims to help the protégés better compete for construction contracts with the Port Authority and similar organizations. According to the authority, the program has helped to increase the number of protégé companies prepared to bid on its larger construction contracts.

The graduating protégé companies are NCC Inc., Aurora Electric, Jody Builders, Sharon Construction, JCF Electric, MZM Construction, and Phillip Fordyce Construction. The mentor companies that they worked with were Turner Construction, RCC Electric, RCC Builders and Developers, Perini Corp., Tishman Construction, KEVCO Electric, Twin Towers Enterprises, Granite Halmar Construction, Conti Enterprises, and VRH Construction.

Meanwhile, the Empire State Development Corp. recently announced that seven organizations in New York have gained approval to provide credit to small businesses through the Minority and Women Revolving Loan Trust Fund Program. The corporation will provide more than $1 million to the organizations, which in turn will offer low-interest loans to businesses owned by minorities and women.

The organizations, each handling a grant of $147,500, are the: African American Chamber of Commerce of Mount Vernon, N.Y.; Bethex Federal Credit Union in the Bronx; Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp.; New York Association for New Americans in Manhattan; Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union; Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corp. in Manhattan; and Westchester Housing Fund in Hawthorne, N.Y.

$80,000 in ACE Scholarships

A recent luncheon for the Architects, Constructors, Engineers (ACE) Mentor Program of Greater New York unveiled $80,000 in scholarships for the 2005 graduates of the program. The annual luncheon, which raises money for the organization's scholarship fund, resulted in the award of 46 four-year scholarships this year.

Four students received the top prizes of $4,000 scholarships: Timan Goshit of Dewitt Clinton High School, who won the Virginia Moore Scholarship sponsored by the New York Businesswomen's Network; Kimberly Petrelis of St. John Villa Academy High School, winner of the McGraw-Hill Scholarship; Dustin Pardo of Great Neck South High School, winner of the JPMorganChase Scholarship; and Sharline Rodriguez of the Manhattan Center for Science & Math High School, winner of the ACE Founders Scholarship.

The luncheon also honored several New York City industry leaders for their efforts supporting mentor activities, including: Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress; John Chirco, senior supervising engineer at Parsons Brinckerhoff; Daniel Zimmon, treasurer of Adelhardt Construction; and Charles Maikish, executive director of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.

More than 300 students were enrolled in New York City's ACE program during the 2004-05 school year.

ACEC Announces Scholarships

The American Council of Engineering Companies of New York recently awarded $27,500 worth of scholarships to 14 undergraduate engineering students at New York State colleges and universities. ACEC New York selects the winners based on a comparison of cumulative grade point average, college activities, work experience, and an essay.

Pavel Nikulin, a civil engineering major at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, will receive the highest award of $5,000. The nine other winners will each receive awards of $2,500. They are: Mark Sheeran of Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y.; Elizabeth Townsend of the Cooper Union; Mitza Zobenica of City College of New York; Benjamin Schiller of City College; Sara Goldgraben of the State University of New York at Stony Brook; Joseph Schuster of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.; Stacy Green and Kelly Marie Finn, both of SUNY at Buffalo; and Paul Fathallah of Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

Click here for more Association News >>