A new scholarship will provide financial assistance to Lehighton Area High School students who want to advance their education in the field of engineering or more broadly study in any STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum at Penn State University.

The Rick and Kathryn Merluzzi scholarship will be open to incoming Penn State freshmen who graduated from Lehighton, and are entering the College of Engineering, Eberly College of Science, or the College of Information Science and Technology.

Merluzzi is currently the chief executive officer of the St. Louis-based Metal Exchange Corporation. The company is an industry leader in nonferrous metals, from purchasing to manufacturing and processing.

“It really comes down to just giving back to two institutions that were really important to me,” Rick Merluzzi, a member of the Lehighton Area High School Class of 1975, said. “In order for our country to keep competing globally, we need to create opportunities for the continued flow of technical talent through our high schools and universities and into the business world.”

The Merluzzis created an endowment in conjunction with Penn State, and one of the main criteria they wanted to look for is anyone who has not had a family member that has gone to college.

“My parents didn’t go to college,” Merluzzi said. “I was a first generation college student so, if we can, we certainly wanted to create that pathway for other first- or second-generation college students.”

Lehighton Area High School Principal Sue Howland said if there are no scholarship candidates who meet that description, a student would qualify as long as there is some sign that financial aid is necessary.

“That is true for about 99% of our students, so if they are going to Penn State into one of the applicable programs, they would be automatically eligible for this,” Howland said. “Penn State has a criteria for how they rank and choose the scholarship recipient.”

Scholarships will be awarded for one year and renewed as long as the recipient continues to meet eligibility requirements and funds are available.

Recipients can get up to $40,000, which would cover about half of their tuition, over four years.

In order to stay eligible, students must maintain a 3.0 grade-point average.

“It’s a very cool venture for our school and we’ve had great meetings over the past few weeks with Mr. Merluzzi and Penn State,” Howland said.

Merluzzi spoke highly of his formative years in Lehighton and said giving back is a trait he inherited from his family.

“Growing up in a small town helps a person develop strong values,” he said. “My grandfather was a founder of the hospital in Lehighton so we have a long history. He was also very active in the community from a charity perspective so I see this as a continuation of that value of giving back to the community that was so important to him.”

Packets for all Lehighton senior scholarships went out last week.

“There is a lot of stuff out there for them right now,” Howland said. “We have between $270,000 and $320,000 available in scholarships for our students here on an annual basis.”