Skip to main content

Apple announces $10K Inclusion and Diversity Scholarships for minorities in tech

Diversity

Update: Apple has posted two more $10K scholarship opportunities with one from its Internet Software & Services Engineering group and another from Apple Software Engineering.

Continuing a number of recent initiatives related to promoting diversity at the company, Apple is now offering a new Product Integrity Inclusion and Diversity Scholarship offering “women, black/African American, Hispanic, or Native American university students” an opportunity to win a $10,000 scholarship to help pay for their education in tech. The scholarship is named for Apple’s Product Integrity group that includes Hardware Reliability, Product Safety, Environmental Technologies, and Hardware and Software Test Engineering.

The Product Integrity Inclusion and Diversity Scholarship is an opportunity for women, black/African American, Hispanic, or Native American university students to win a $10,000 scholarship to help pay for their education in the technology field… To be eligible, applicants must be women, black/African American, Hispanic, or Native American students who are attending an accredited U.S. university and continuing their education in Fall 2015… Applicants must be in at least their sophomore year of college pursuing a bachelor’s degree, or enrolled in a master’s degree or PhD program in computer science or a related field.

Apple announced the new scholarship via two postings on its job listings site and explained how students can apply. One of the applications asks students to submit a proposal “describing the design of a test track for a vehicle that will transport astronauts on Europa (one of Jupiter’s many moons),” while the other asks applicants to envision adding a new sensor to an Apple product:

In addition to your resume, as part of your application you need to submit a detailed proposal describing the design of a test track for a vehicle that will transport astronauts on Europa (one of Jupiter’s many moons). Design the track and include renderings that show what materials, surfaces, and terrains you expose to the vehicle in order to ensure it will function while on Europa. Cost is no object. Use your imagination and design the test track to push the vehicle to the limits.

Last month Apple released its first diversity report for the company detailing the gender and ethnicity of its employees and other stats related to diversity at the company. Apple’s report showed that 7 out of 10 of its employees worldwide are currently male, while its workforce in the US is made up of 55% white, 15% Asian, 11% Hispanic, and 7% Black. Another 2% identify as more than one ethnicity and the remaining 9 percent chose not to declare. The company followed up with other recebt initiatives including internal events and a letter from Apple’s HR chief to employees earlier this week.

Apple will notify winners by January 31, 2015 and notes that it will automatically consider applicants for internship roles at the company.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. herb02135go - 10 years ago

    Great. What’s the makeup of its communications team? Is it 75% female and will the company create a scholarship to get more men into communications positions?

  2. How is this even fair? Just because I am not a minority doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to get help paying my education. All I constantly see are these scholarships for minorities in IT yet white folks like me don’t get any of those opportunities for money.

    • flaviosuave - 10 years ago

      Life’s not fair, buddy, but if you don’t recognize how much easier your life is generally as a white male, your main setback isn’t a lack of scholarships, it’s your astonishing ignorance.

      • André Hedegaard Petersen - 10 years ago

        Are you crazy? In this day & age, there is no discrimination in USA based on skin colour / ethnic background in the workforce.
        its this kind of thinking that makes people believe there is.

  3. rogifan - 10 years ago

    $10K? Chump change. And if you’re Asian or Caucasian male you don’t matter?

    • herb02135go - 10 years ago

      I agree it’s a very small amount.
      While the money is helpful it’s usually the prestige of winning the scholarship that is more valuable.

    • flaviosuave - 10 years ago

      After struggling throughout the entirety of history, it is definitely a worthy question to ask when the white male will finally catch a break in this world!

  4. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    A nice gesture – though more could always be done to provide – anyone who has an interest in technology – opportunities in the field.

  5. Avenged110 - 10 years ago

    So in other words, f@ck anyone who doesn’t fit into one of those categories? Because somehow it’s just easier for me to pay for college considering I’m a white male? What’s wrong with just offering a scholarship for anyone who would like to be educated in tech? Rather odd coming from a company that continually marches under the mantra of “equality.”

    • herb02135go - 10 years ago

      Not even a gift card to BJ’s?
      Shame.

    • Dean Har - 10 years ago

      What a pity party you’re throwing yourself! You might rely on Apple to force feed you your yearly iDevice, but surely finding scholarship opportunities is something you can manage to do yourself. If you are disadvantaged you can find aid, even if you’re white. Do some research.

      • Avenged110 - 10 years ago

        I’m plenty familiar, but these companies aren’t exactly helping. Fwiw, I don’t buy new iDevices. I’m sticking with my iPhone 5 until it literally stops functioning because it works perfectly fine.

    • flaviosuave - 10 years ago

      Your entire life has been easier for you as a white male compared to if you were any other category. And now you “miss out” on a relatively paltry scholarship and you start whining like a baby? Grow up.

  6. Dave Huntley - 10 years ago

    I am completely against this reverse racism, encourage people to join a team all you want, but whites are the new minority in California, so shouldn’t they be welcomed to the program too? Hispanics are the majority, and this is where it gets messy as the majority qualifies for ‘special help based on color’. Asians have higher inpcomes and education levels than whites in North America. So who does this help exactly? As for the sex role, yes, all HR depts are overwhelmingly female and there is zero attempt to positively disciminate for males. This is a 90s answer to a never ending problem. It didn’t work then either.

    • Dean Har - 10 years ago

      Dave Huntley Reasoning: Whites already dominate the tech job market. Because whites are the new minority in California, let’s help even more get access to the highest paying jobs.

      Interesting point of view

    • Max Rodriguez - 10 years ago

      You’re against “reverse racism” but you’re probably not against institutionalized racism or even admit it exists because it is not a detriment to you as “reverse racism” is.

  7. rogifan - 10 years ago

    This is one thing Tim didn’t learn from Steve. Steve wasn’t obsessed with political correctness.

  8. Greg Frederiksen - 10 years ago

    WOW! $10k … Maybe apple could also include a signed contract. So if a black man gets it, it can not be spent on drugs …

    That comment is about as racist as apple excluding white men and asians from it. But I bet Apple would frown on that version of racism … … …

  9. Scott Wooters - 10 years ago

    Maybe it’s just me, but why is it the first group EXCLUDED from all the INCLUSION plans are white people? So reverse discrimination is the answer? There are no scholarship programs in place for these people already? We need yet another one? I understand that there were problems in the past, but finding a new group of people to “leave out” is not the answer.

    • flaviosuave - 10 years ago

      It’s not just you. It’s also all the other ignorant white males whining about this same thing.

  10. André Hedegaard Petersen - 10 years ago

    It should be about qualifications, not skin colour. Sad that Apple don’t encourage this.
    Just ignore the whole “minority” debate entirely, its not even relevant.

  11. Charles Bagley - 10 years ago

    I understand the reasoning behind Tim Cook’s scholarship criterion, but it is ill-considered, and must leave a nasty taste in the mouths of many within the Apple community.

    As an indirect shareholder in Apple, I insist that the company makes most of its decisions based on value-optimization, and leave charitable and political giving to its grass-roots shareholders. Last year, I contributed over $3,000 to charitable organizations, to assist any poor but deserving child whom is crying-out for a superior educational experience. Apple, please do not usurp my right to the earnings of my company: I’m a big boy and like most Americans, I try to act ethically and with propper social conscience.

    I am Angle-Saxon, and left school in England at 15-years of age–with no real credentials–to work on a factory floor. My school had but a small fraction of the funding/student of today’s American inner-city schools, and teachers did their best, despite not having university degrees. While working, I attended evening school four nights a week to obtain my O- & A-Levels. Later, I earned a degree in physics, an later still, a MBA / PhD in finance from a major US university.

    I believe that giving special benefits to anybody based on race, religion, gender or gender preferences, age, et cetera, engenders a mind-set of dependency and entitlement. Discrimination should be illegal in all situations, and the law rigorously enforced. What every educationally-deprived person needs is a sound set of apportunities that may be exploited with hard work and diligence.

    Denying equality to the nonscheduled casts (Asians, Arabs, Caucasians, Semites, etc.) feeds the swelling ranks of ultra-rightwing fanatics in America by providing their leadership with a valid argument when proselytizing their doctrines of hate and violence to poor whites.

    The rot of inequality has penetrated to the core of our most venerated institutions, and is not confined to the scheduled casts. Several university appointments ago, I was “told” by my Dean of a major state university that “it would not be “good” to fail any black student nor any member of the University’s football team.” I consider such informal practices to be immoral and against the long-term interests of those they are intended to help.

    Another story about that same university. Over the years, several “white” students told me that they had changed their racial designations to “black” while in school in order to obtain preferential treatment not otherwise afforded them. My changelings came from poor immigrant Italian households and could not be challenged by the University so that the practice had become widespread.

    When anybody takes a public stance on the issue of inverse-equality, he or she invites unwarranted attacks for being a racist. My siblings and I all married outside the white race, and we only want true equality for our children, not patronizing special privileges. We want our children to grow up strongly, and with independent spirits.

    Mr. Cook, you have huge problems at Apple. You have vast amounts of money sitting off-shore because you and your corporate peers have not been able to insist that government make sensible changes to the tax code. You are purchasing companies at a huge premium, companies that have dubious and disputed intellectual rights and fickle brand loyalty. Your healthy profit margins are under threat from competitors whom mimic your innovations, but use economic models that will be undercut your comparative advantage. Please, Tim, return to your cobbler’s last and stop dissipating your efforts.

    Yes, Steve Jobs was a real skinflint who believed in internal growth, and some organizational changes remain necessary, but they need to be made with prudence and true equity.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.