The GE Foundation has announced a $100 million commitment to establish a global college-readiness initiative aimed at increasing the diversity of young people in engineering.

Developed in partnership with FHI 360, a nonprofit that works to improve the health and well-being of people in the United States and around the globe, the Next Engineers program will provide middle- and high-school students from backgrounds underrepresented in engineering with hands-on exposure to engineering concepts and careers and, eventually, scholarships to help them pursue an engineering degree. Over the next decade, the foundation intends to engage more than eighty-five thousand students in approximately twenty-five cities around the world.

To that end, the out-of-school program will be structured into three age-dependent components: an engineering expo for eighth-graders designed to increase awareness of career fairs and assemblies and how engineering can solve global challenges linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; an engineering camp for rising ninth-graders; and an engineering academy for ninth- through twelfth-graders.

"Day in and day out, engineers are changing the world and solving society's most pressing challenges — from clean energy to quality health care and more sustainable flight," said GE Foundation president Linda Boff. "Next Engineers is designed to inspire and guide underrepresented young people in engineering, each with their unique perspective and diversity of experiences, to become the next generation of global problem solvers."