CHELMSFORD — Kronos may be leaving for Lowell, but the company is trying to give back to Chelmsford through a new scholarship for high-school students.
Kronos has committed to providing two $5,000 scholarships each year for five years through the Town of Chelmsford Scholarship Fund, according to Chief Procurement Officer Vince Devlin.
“Kronos truly appreciates the town of Chelmsford for being a tremendous partner for the past 17 years,” he said.
The labor-management software and services company will vacate its Billerica Road location by fall 2017 for Lowell’s Cross Point towers.
Devlin said leaving the town is bittersweet. Hundreds of Kronites have lived in Chelmsford over the years, including 72 active employees, he said.
“We really felt like we wanted to acknowledge that experience and our commitment to Chelmsford,” Devlin said.
Town Manager Paul Cohen and Richard Main, chairman of the town scholarship committee, expressed their gratitude for the scholarship.
“This is a great gift from Kronos that will benefit the children of Chelmsford for years to come,” Cohen said. “We’ve certainly enjoyed our prolonged relationship with them over the last decade and a half in town.”
“With the ever increasing cost of a college education, providing scholarships to assist very deserving students is extremely rewarding and so very important as young individuals face an ever changing and increasingly competitive world,” Main said in a statement.
Eligible recipients will be graduating high-school seniors who will major in science, technology, engineering and math. The first winners will be selected this spring.
There are no gender requirements for recipients, but Kronos hopes the scholarship will encourage more female students to enter the typically male-dominated STEM fields, Devlin said.
He said company leadership hopes to meet the students who apply for and receive the scholarships.
“We believe connecting the student to the workplace environment is a very strong and important connection early on,” Devlin said.
The scholarship is part of Kronos’ GiveInspired program, which gives back to the communities Kronites live and work in while inspiring the next generation workforce, he said.
Other local company initiatives include an internship program through UMass Lowell and support of UTEC’s workforce programs, Devlin said. Kronos also fully funds a school in Noida, India, that prepares children who would otherwise not have the opportunity to enter state school, he said.
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