In our March edition of “The Dispatch” newsletter, we featured our partnership with Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) to expand their mechanic scholarship program for 2022. It’s an initiative to create a cycling industry that is more accessible, inclusive and diverse by teaching underrepresented individuals the skills needed to build a successful career in the bike industry.

The 2022 program awarded 42 scholarships to individuals which brings the total to 170 recipients to date. Now that the ’22 trainings are complete, we want to share this inspiring video to introduce some of the scholarship recipients and learn about the skills they acquired and their career aspirations.

If you or someone you know might be interested in joining the 2023 cohort, the upcoming application period is open from January 17th 2023 through April 8th 2023. For more details follow the link to Quality Bicycle Products

Meet Some of the 2022 QBP Mechanic Scholarship Participants:

Jon Camunes: 

“My focus after acquiring these new skills is using them to help my community. I’d like to start a mutual aid maintenance/repair clinic so I can repair and tune up bikes for the homeless and low-income populations.”

Itza Salazar:

“I’m hoping to gain more terminology and learn processes. I want to be able to work on a bike and have confidence in knowing that what I am doing will yield quality results and outcomes.”

Bijou Vaultz:

“My dream goal is to be a pro race mechanic for an all-female race team. I recently met an acquaintance in Denmark at the Tour de France who is a pro mechanic. Getting to see the world behind the scenes of the biggest cycling event in the universe was eye opening.”

Jose Chavarria

“This scholarship will help me increase my professional connections and allow me to get more familiar with the cycling industry”