Friday, March 23, 2012
By Ellen Novales

Chairman Pete J. Balsells, Vice-Chairman Jacques Naviaux, and President/CEO Rick Dawson recently hosted ten Catalan students on a visit to Bal Seal’s Foothill Ranch facilities. They were accompanied by Professor Roger H. Rangel of UC-Irvine’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and concurrently Director of the Balsells Fellowship Program and the California-Catalonia Programs. The 2012 Balsells Undergraduate Mobility Program brings undergraduate students from Catalonia, Spain to conduct their senior projects at UCI under the supervision of a UCI faculty member, with the hope that these students pursue their graduate degrees at UC-Irvine.

Press_Rel2012

In September 2011 the Balsells Fellowship Program celebrated 15 years. Since 1996 the Program has supported students from Catalonia to pursue graduate studies at UC-Irvine and University of Colorado at Boulder. The program’s components are the Balsells Fellowship, the Universitat de Girona Fellowship, the Engineering Innovation Program, and the Visiting Scholar Program for Academic Collaboration, with the able support of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia). From 1996 through 2011, Pete Balsells’s desire to help promising Catalan students has awarded more than 80 fellowships. As of 2012 the Program has produced 18 PhDs.

BalSeal 2012During their visit, the Catalan students were challenged by Pete to pursue their academic dreams with the support of the Balsells Fellowship, the Chairman’s way of forging the past into the future, an extension of Pete’s personal journey from a struggling youth in Catalonia to a multi-awarded inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. The students were given a glimpse of a company that started with an idea and has grown into a strong and innovative enterprise, proving that with good preparation, perseverance and a desire to get ahead, there is a lot that can be achieved in this country, and opportunities for them to maybe even be part of Bal Seal’s future. 

April 2012: Balsells students visit Bal Seal Engineering.