An endowed Engineering scholarship in the amount of $25,000 has been established by Con Edison at the College of Staten Island. The Con Edison Scholarship Endowment is open to CSI students who are pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and who are United States citizens, have achieved and maintain a minimum 3.0 cumulative grade point average, are enrolled as full-time students of the College (minimum of 12 credits per semester), and are residents of New York City.

Commenting on the endowment, Marilyn Caselli, Con Edison’s Senior Vice President of Customer Operations, who is also a Staten Island Community College alumna and a member of the CSI Foundation Board, said, “As you know, we are the delivery company for the New York area and engineering is one of the really critical types of fields that play a very big role at Con Edison. So, it was really quite a natural fit for us to be able to support scholarships, especially with a focus on engineering. We look forward to hopefully having some of the future folks who may work for Con Ed and make a difference being graduates of CSI.”

Mark Irving, Director of Public Affairs for Con Edison on Staten Island, added, “We’re a company that is based in New York, rooted in New York. We can’t pick up and leave the city. There are too many wires and pipes in the ground. So this is our future workforce.”

In expressing his thanks to Con Edison, CSI President Dr. Tomás Morales pointed to the endowment as one example of the company’s vast contributions to the local community. “Con Edison is an extraordinary corporate citizen who provides support to The City University of New York and, of course, the College of Staten Island. This particular endowment is an addition to many philanthropic contributions that Con Edison has provided the College… It will help us attract the very brightest students and certainly will help us connect to the Staten Island community.”

In regard to the endowment’s impact at the student level, Department of Engineering Chair Dr. Syed Rizvi mentioned that most CSI engineering students also work and have families, “so this is a good thing for them. At least some of them will be supported. We are very thankful to Con Edison for this generous endowment.”

On a similar theme, CSI Foundation Board President Robert Cutrona underscored the fact that this endowment will help the Foundation to better meet its goals of bringing students to the College. “Every cent of this gift from Con Edison goes to scholarships. It’s going to help people come to the College and that’s what we’re all about…”

Beyond this endowment, Con Edison has provided support for a number of programs that benefit not only the students of CSI, but the Staten Island community, including an environmental project at the Eibs Pond Park Preserve in the borough, a program that gave CSI students the chance to teach about environmental issues at some of the Island’s public schools, and an environmental curriculum for CSI science education students.