For nearly 25 years, the Automotive Women’s Alliance Foundation has given away more than $700,000 in scholarships to women wanting to get involved or further their education in the automotive industry.
The foundation will be adding to that legacy in August with the 29th annual AWAF Swinging “FORE” Scholarship Golf Outing. The AWAF, whose mission is to advance and empower women in automotive and related industries and contribute to the mobility industry by advocating for the advancement of every woman throughout her career, hopes to raise some $80,000 with this year’s outing, annually the foundation’s biggest fundraiser.
“When a student is awarded the financial support … it’s not just about the financial part,” said Carolyn Sauer, co-chair of the AWAF’s scholarship program. “I think that’s a huge help and a huge support for them, but we also help them to start building their network and talking to women in the careers that they’re in and how to go about getting into jobs like that.”
Since 2001, the foundation has handed out $704,500 in scholarships to 274 women. By the end of this year, foundation officials hope to expand that to some $767,000 – “We’re calling it ‘On the Road to $1 million,” Sauer said – with the hope of crossing that million-dollar plateau in the next three years.
“We think that with the right sponsorships and corporate support, we’ll hit that million dollar number in the next two to three years,” Sauer said. “And the golf outing is instrumental in helping us drive that fundraising.”
The outing takes place Monday, Aug. 18, at Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Center, 8768 N. Territorial in Plymouth Township. To register or for more information, visit awafoundation.org.
Scholarships are given to women who live in the United States, Canada, Mexico or Jamaica. According to Sauer, applicants typically have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and demonstrate a “strong passion and interest” in the automotive mobility and related fields.
Fran Bachmann, who was a co-founder of the AWAF, said that interest in the automotive industry is the key component of the program.
“All they have to do is have a desire to be part of the automotive industry,” Bachmann said. “These can be women in any stage of their automotive career. They could just be starting out or wishing to further their career with a master’s degree. We support women in all stages of their endeavors as long as they have a desire to be in the automotive industry.”
The foundation takes applications in January and again in June (the next deadline is Jan. 16, 2026), typically receiving some 50 applications each time. Scholarships are given out quarterly.
The foundation asks applicants to share their transcript and to write a brief essay describing their interest in the auto industry and what their career path looks like.
“It doesn’t have to be super long,” Sauer said. “Some of them include things that they’re interested in as younger students. For instance, they liked building with Legos and they liked doing hands-on activities.
“And that’s all kind of translated into opportunities to work in the automotive industry.”
Sauer pointed out that support doesn’t stop once the money is handed out. The scholarship comes with a free year of AWAF membership and an option to enroll in the foundation’s mentorship program.
Sauer called that support “critical.”
“It’s really a critical piece to it, because we’re not just helping to enable the talent pool, which has been challenging itself the last few years, but really to get that community in that sense of understanding each other,” she said. “One of the things that I like to reflect on is the fact that we have five generations of people in the workplace now. So it’s exciting to … be able to do this as new generations are coming in, we’re getting new thoughts, new ideas, and being able to really bridge those together.”
Ironically Bachmann established the first golf outing even though she knew nothing about the game. She started out in the auto industry as a car sales person, the only woman in the dealership where she worked. She won several golf outings in sales contests, but didn’t use them because she didn’t play and she’d have been the only woman.
“I was afraid to go because I would’ve been amongst a lot of other men,” Bachmann said. “I had no idea how to golf or what the etiquette would be in a golf outing situation, and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.
“So … I said,’OK, I’m going to make a golf outing for women so that they can go on a golf outing and feel comfortable going to it and not have to feel scared or concerned that they wouldn’t know what to do,” she said. “They’d be in a supportive environment.”
The golf outing is a source of pride for Bachmann because it’s still a necessity to support women in what she believes is a male-dominated industry.
“I’m very grateful that it has continued on still,” Bachmann said. “Unfortunately, it’s still a needed thing in the automotive industry. It would be even more lovely to me if it wasn’t needed anymore.
“But it is still needed, so I’m glad that it’s still there for people and that it has supported so many women to give them that many scholarships,” she added. “And it’s not just the scholarships that they get. They get this plethora of people that they can network with, and there is mentorship and just a sense of that support that they get with the scholarship.”
Still, Bachmann hopes the day arrives when it is no longer necessary.
“I hope that day will come,” she said. “I don’t foresee it. I I couldn’t say,’ oh, in 10 years …’ Unfortunately, it seems like it still is needed, so I’m glad it’s there for people who are in that aspect of the industry.”
