Of its $1 million contribution to the University System of Maryland, the John and Maureen Hendricks Charitable Foundation pledged $450,000 to the University of Maryland Energy Research Center. The center is a multidisciplinary initiative that focuses on advancing the frontiers of energy science and technology, particularly forward-looking approaches to alternative energy generation and storage. John Hendricks, chairman and CEO of Discovery Communications, is a member of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees.

A $180,000 pledge from the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA)–Bethesda Chapter provides $60,000 annually in scholarships to Maryland’s engineering and computer science students over the next three years. Twenty-nine students have been selected as the first AFCEA–Bethesda Scholars for the 2008-2009 academic year. The AFCEA-Bethesda Scholarship benefits full-time students who graduated from Montgomery County, Md. high schools.

The Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland, recently received a pledge of $125,000 from the McCormick Tribune Foundation to fund New Media Women Entrepreneurs (NMWE). NMWE is a unique initiative that addresses opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by spotlighting their ingenuity and entrepreneurial abilities. The pledge provides $10,000 each to help launch three women-led news initiatives. The foundation's gift also supports honoring a New Media Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, research on women’s issues and opportunities in today’s newsrooms, and the development of other entrepreneurial ideas.

Stephen Sklar ’68 made provisions in his will to establish a new campus-wide endowed scholarship to provide need-based aid to in-state students. During his career, Sklar encountered students who were unable to attend college due to financial constraints. The Stephen M. and Adeilda N. Sklar Scholarship also memorializes his late wife.

Gerald ’83 and Sheldon Shapiro, brothers and proprietors of Shapiro & Duncan, one of the region’s foremost mechanical engineering firms, committed $125,000 to establish the Shapiro & Duncan Endowed Scholarship supporting undergraduate students studying mechanical engineering at the Clark School of Engineering. The Shapiros also pledged to continue their investment in Maryland’s student internships, the Solar Decathlon team and athletics.