Applications for the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship program now open

Back in September, Amazon hosted the United States' biggest career fair where people hailing from all sorts of backgrounds and experience levels came in and explored the 30,000 full-time and part-time, job openings that were up for grabs. The tech giant now has something in store for passionate and upcoming computer scientists.

Today, applications for the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship program officially opened. Under it, 100 students belonging to underserved and underrepresented communities across the country will have the opportunity to receive $40,000 to pursue computer science at a college of their liking. The lump sum of $40,000 will be equally spread, at $10,000 each, over the four years of the degree.

In addition, the chosen students will also have a guaranteed paid internship placement at Amazon at the culmination of their first year under the program. According to the firm, "Amazon Future Engineer is one of the only computer science programs to offer a scholarship and internship placement to students."

This will be the second year for the program, which was originally announced in November 2018, exactly a year ago. For the firm, the "Amazon Future Engineer is a four-part childhood-to-career program intended to inspire, educate, and prepare children and young adults from underrepresented and underserved communities to pursue careers in the fast-growing field of computer science."

As far as the application is concerned, Amazon highly encouraged current high school seniors, who fit the demographic above, to apply. There are also some prerequisites for applying to the program, which the firm outlined in its press release:

...completion of an Advanced Placement Computer Science course in high school, intent to pursue a computer science degree at a four-year college or university, and a teacher recommendation. Other factors considered include: academic performance, demonstrated leadership, community involvement, work experience, a statement of career and educational goals, and financial need.

The due date for the application is January 17, next year. For more information, past experiences of accepted candidates, and for applying to the Amazon Future Engineer program, you may visit the website here.