ACI Foundation Scholarship 2026 - $5,000 to $10,000

A family of more than thirty fellowships and scholarships run by the ACI Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Concrete Institute, for students pursuing careers in concrete. The original ACI Scholarship Program dates to 1970 and was funded by contributions from ACI members. Awards range from broad ones open to any concrete field to narrow ones tied to durability, materials, leadership or specific ACI chapters, and they all run through the same student application portal.

Scholarship recipients receive a $5,000 educational stipend for tuition, residence, books and materials. Fellowship recipients receive $10,000 plus paid travel to two ACI Conventions. The MENA Student Excellence Award pays $7,000 and the Saudi Arabia Student Excellence Award $5,000, both with travel to a North American convention, an ACI Middle East Conference and regional travel for ACI certification. Every recipient is recognised in Concrete International magazine.

1 November 2026. Applications opened on 1 July 2026, so the window is open now. The Foundation states plainly that late applications will not be accepted, and the same applies to transcripts, which have to arrive from your institution rather than from you. Review runs from mid-November to early February, and all awardees are notified in early April.

No, but you need to know one. The application requires two endorsements showing your suitability for the award, and at least one of them must come from an ACI member. Endorsers cannot be students or family members. If you have no ACI contact, start with your department, a local ACI chapter or a university ACI Student Chapter, because this is the requirement most likely to hold up an otherwise finished application.

Partly. Fellowship applicants must attend an accredited institute or university in the United States or Canada during the award cycle, so an international student studying in North America qualifies while one studying elsewhere does not. Separately, the MENA Student Excellence Award covers students at universities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, and the Saudi Arabia award is for Saudi nationals at a Saudi university.

If you reach the final stage of a fellowship, yes. Finalists must attend the spring ACI Concrete Convention in person for their interview, and the Foundation pays the travel. Fellowship recipients then receive paid travel to two ACI Conventions as part of the award, which is a genuine professional benefit rather than an obligation, since those conventions are where the industry hires.

A current resume, a 500-word essay on your interest in a long-term career in the concrete industry, official transcripts from every institution you have attended, and two endorsements with at least one from an ACI member. Transcripts must be in English and adjusted to a 4.0 scale, with WES evaluations accepted, and must be sent directly by the institution rather than by you.

It varies by award. The ACI Foundation Fellowship alone offers ten awards annually and requires no internship, while other named awards fund one or a small number of students each. Because the Foundation runs more than thirty distinct fellowships and scholarships, the practical number of funded students each year is substantially larger than any single award suggests.

Some do and some explicitly do not. The ACI Foundation Fellowship and the ACI Presidents' Fellowship both state that no internship is required. The Baker Construction Fellowship requires a completed internship before the award term, and the Charles Pankow Student Fellowship requires an internship in a construction environment, usually with Charles Pankow Builders or on a Pankow project. Check the specific award before assuming either way.