Sony to give free laptops, scholarships

All across the country, college students will get free laptops and cameras as part of a promotion for electronics company Sony.

This fall at IU, five academically outstanding students and two-tenure tracked faculty will be awarded a scholarship from Sony.

Selected students will receive a VAIO notebook, a digital camera and an MP3 player.

The two faculty members will also receive the laptop, as well as a digital camcorder and a 26-inch television.

Sony, in a partnership with computer chip manufacturer Intel, will provide scholarship grants to 30 universities and community colleges across the U.S. for its “First Wave” of participating campuses selected for the new program.

“IU has had a long-standing relationship with Sony, and we felt that by choosing them as a flagship school for this program we could further that relationship,” said Steven Zimmer, the business development manager of education for the consumer direct division at Sony. “We want to empower the best and brightest with the tools they need to succeed.”

IU was chosen for this scholarship to support the program called “Empowering People,” IU’s strategic plan for information technology. This is a program that is designed to aid students and faculty by making technology resources abundantly available.

Sony will also implement this program at other major schools around the country such as Florida State University at Tallahassee, New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, University of Oregon at Eugene and the University of Southern California.

The first recipients of the award, students and faculty at California State University in Long Beach, were given their technology package during a ceremony Sept. 22.

To be eligible for the scholarship at IU, students must have a minimum grade point average of 3.5 and be eligible for federal financial aid, said Anastasia Morrone, the associate dean for learning technologies at IU, who oversees the program on campus.
 
Morrone said the self-nomination and selection process will be announced later.

“If a student or faculty is eligible for the program, they will have the opportunity to describe how the technology award will benefit them as part of the self-nomination process,” Morrone said. “We are excited about the Sony Scholarship Program because it benefits some of our most deserving and high achieving students at IU by putting these tools directly in their hands.”