Potomac AFCOM Establishes $10K Data Center Scholarship thru Ed. Foundation

Potomac AFCOM, a local chapter of AFCOM celebrated its new intern cohort yesterday in an event kick-off at Lost Rhino Brewing Company in Ashburn, Va. The AFCOM chapter recently announced its 2021 Summer Internship Program, a 10-week course introducing students to multiple disciplines in the data center industry. Three NOVA students, new interns, were in attendance. This is the third consecutive year that the chapter has launched this program.

The AFCOM chapter also announced the kick-off of a new ‘Wendy Darling Potomac AFCOM Grant.’ The grant, named in honor of the mother of Stu Dyer, a Potomac AFCOM board member, will provide the NOVA Educational Foundation with a grant of $10,000.

“We are looking to take young candidates for the data center industry and plug these students right into the workforce,” said Dyer said. “My mom had passed from COVID last year, so I wanted to really honor her memory as she was always pushing education and academics. Raising money in this effort for academic opportunities is something I am really proud of.”

The objective of the internship program is to leverage undergraduate engineering students’ talents and have them observe and assist with projects within the data center community. Students return to their undergraduate institution armed with references and a solid foundation.

“This scholarship means more student advancement in the technology space,” said Kelly Persons, executive director of the NOVA Foundation. “We are so proud of NOVA students being recognized by such a prestigious association like Potomac AFCOM and are also excited for the opportunities to come from the connections there.”

AFCOM advances, through education, networking and guidance, the professional development of individuals and the organizations they serve in the field of data center and IT infrastructure management. These individuals span the data center industry, ranging from IT pros, including DevOPs, to Facilities Management, IT Operations, Builders (like cloud and data center architects, engineers and construction managers) and vendors.

AFCOM serves Individuals and organizations that design, build, operate, support and manage data centers and IT Infrastructure around the world with industry-leading insights, education, tools and professional networking. Potomac AFCOM is a chapter of AFCOM supporting individuals (members and non-members) in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia who wish to learn about, participate in and network with the Data Center Community. AFCOM’s local Potomac Chapter in Virginia continues to support the data center education of students in support of the industry.

For more information on Potomac AFCOM, contact David Mulholland, president of the AFCOM Potomac Chapter at Dave.Mulholland@pdicorp.com. For media inquiries, please contact Hoang Nguyen, public information officer at NOVA at hdnguyen@nvcc.edu.

For more information on the Potomac AFCOM internship program, please visit: https://potomacafcom.webstarts.com/internship.html

Submitted by:
Hoang Nguyen, NOVA PIO, HDNguyen@nvcc.edu