North Wind Group Establishes Second Scholarship Endowment at Idaho State University

Wednesday, North Wind Group announced the creation of the North Wind Group STEM Scholarship Endowment. The gift will provide scholarships for junior or senior students who have declared a STEM major with ISU’s College of Science and Engineering.

“After 21 years, North Wind is still proud to continue the partnership with ISU to grow the scholarship reach to students, which is why we’re excited to officially announce that we’ve established a second scholarship, the North Wind Group STEM Scholarship Endowment to help support and inspire ISU students to pursue further education in the fields of STEM,” said Christopher P. Leichtweis, North Wind Group President/CEO.

“North Wind has been a great partner supporting STEM education at ISU for years, and this generous gift furthers that partnership enormously,” said Scott Snyder, Dean of the College of Science and Engineering.” We are grateful for North Wind's commitment to making a world-class STEM education available to our outstanding students in the College of Science and Engineering.”

The new endowment is the second established at ISU by North Wind Group after the company started the Thomas R. Sherwood Scholarship Endowment in 2001, along with Sherwood’s friends and colleagues and funds raised from golf tournaments. Sherwood was one of North Wind Group’s first employees and its Geosciences Department Chair before his death in 2000. The Thomas R. Sherwood Scholarship Endowment endowment is designed to provide scholarships for students with a passion for the outdoors and science, specifically for geoscience and biology students with a focus on the environment. This year’s recipients are Grant Bradbury and Joseph Hively.  

“I would like to thank all the wonderful people at North Wind and those who’ve generously donated money to the Thomas R. Sherwood Scholarship,” said Bradbury, a senior majoring in geology from Salmon, Idaho. “This scholarship will enable me to devote more time to my schooling, to be more financially independent, and spend more time contributing to my community.”

“To be a recipient of this scholarship truly is reaffirming,” said Hively, a sophomore majoring in ecology with an emphasis in conservation biology from Lewisville, Idaho. “Knowing that I have chosen the correct path in pursuit of education and also knowing that I am not alone on my educational journey.”

North Wind is one of the nation’s leading small businesses providing engineering, construction, environmental, facility operation and infrastructure, IT/cyber enterprise management, and professional services to federal and state agencies and private industry. Headquartered in Idaho Falls since 1997, North Wind has grown to a group of companies that employ more than 2,000 professionals at more than 35 offices across the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam.

For more information about ISU’s College of Science and Engineering, visit isu.edu/cse.