Sonic Impact Scholarships offer toolboxes to manufacturing students
Your factory’s next maintenance chief may just be an essay and a few other steps away. Alabama’s Sonic USA is looking for young people interested in pursuing manufacturing and other technical careers for its Sonic Impact Scholarship Program with applications open until Halloween (Oct. 31, 2025).
Winners will get a fully stocked tool kit and toolbox worth more than $9,000.
Applications are open to students following manufacturing, automotive or aviation technical degrees. Sonic awarded five scholarships in June and expects to award another five in November.
Company officials say they’re looking for students who embody PACE.
- Passion: An unparalleled enthusiasm about what one does
- Accountability: Being dependable, caring about, and taking responsibility for one’s work
- Collaboration: Working with others to achieve the best version of work
- Experience: Providing an ‘unbeatable experience’ for customers, peers, and co-workers
Students committed to their trade can apply online, providing the following information:
- Proof of enrollment in an automotive, aviation or manufacturing trade school (class schedule or student ID)
- Letter of recommendation from the students’ instructor (include contact information)
- 500-word essay on how the student exemplifies the values of P.A.C.E. while explaining “How I will make an impact”
- 60-90-second video on “How Sonic will impact one’s career.”
About the Author
Robert Schoenberger
Robert Schoenberger has been writing about manufacturing technology in one form or another since the late 1990s. He began his career in newspapers in South Texas and has worked for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland where he spent more than six years as the automotive reporter. In 2013, he launched Today's Motor Vehicles, a magazine focusing on design and manufacturing topics within the automotive and commercial truck worlds. He joined IndustryWeek in late 2021.