Yondr has teamed up with the NOVA Educational Foundation and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) to support future talent in the data center sector. Five new scholarships have been created for NOVA students enrolled in Engineering Technology or Data Center Operations (DCO) programmes. 

The move forms part of our efforts in developing talent for the data center sector globally and follows creation of the Yondr Women in Engineering Scholarship for Queen’s University in Belfast, UK. Yondr has contributed $24,000 to the NOVA Foundation to fund the scholarships. In addition to funding the scholarships, Yondr’s investment will also fund the purchase of industry-specific tools such as splicing kits for NOVA’s expanded DCO training labs, ensuring that students are well prepared for their professional careers from day one. 

“Yondr understands the critical role of community colleges in training students to fill a growing number of workforce vacancies in data centers and engineering careers. This is evidenced by Yondr’s first gift to the Information and Engineering Technologies (IET) Fund through the NOVA Foundation which occurred even before the company broke ground for its first U.S. data center,” said Kelly Persons, Executive Director of the NOVA Educational Foundation. “The company’s commitment to a strong partnership with NOVA not only shows its support for our students but also their willingness to invest in our students’ professional success.” 

Yondr’s Paul Hood, COO – Global Data Center Operations added: “At Yondr, we are dedicated to fostering growth and success in the communities where we develop, build, and operate our data centers. Supporting local students as they prepare for careers in data centers is one of the best ways we can contribute to our community. We are excited to partner with NOVA and the Educational Foundation in the coming years to help our students thrive right here in Northern Virginia.” 

There will be five scholarships for NOVA, two for part-time students and three for full-time students, all are open to those with good academic achievement while studying on an Engineering Technology AAS or CSC program, or a Data Center Operations AAS or CSC program at the college. Each scholarship may be renewable for an additional year to fully support a student’s educational journey.