A Turkish foundation will cooperate with a United States-based information technology (IT) firm with bureaus in several countries to find and assist local students through scholarships for advanced degrees at U.S. universities.

The Turken Foundation, which was established by two respected local foundations, Ensar and Türgev, for this aim, and Comodo Group Inc., based in Clifton, New Jersey, will provide five students a monthly stipend of $1,000 each. Third or fourth year undergraduate students, as well as graduate students - both master's and doctoral students - are eligible to apply. Payments will be made for two years to master's students and three years for doctoral students. Successful applicants will also be able to gain practical experience at Comodo, which will allow the students to work as interns for 640 hours at its regional bureaus in the U.K., Ukraine, Romania, China, India, Turkey and the U.S. Students will be able to utilize their theoretical knowledge in a work environment while interacting with different cultures, improving language skills and gaining overseas experience. Among the requirements necessary for the scholarship is a good command of English, desire to focus on IT as a career and be younger than 35. Graduates will be at an advantage during the selection phase.

Project director and Mental HR recruitment and career director, Uğur Karaboğa, said while the scholarship opportunities would be of interest to most, the project's real objective is to create a database of local IT talent that can be leveraged by both Comodo and Mental HR for the advantage of both firms and those who want to further their careers in IT.

Turken was originally established to help students who wanted to study in the U.S. through providing scholarships, accommodation and other cultural programs. Comodo is a privately held group of companies providing computer software and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) digital certificates. The database created will pool all the talented IT graduates under one umbrella, providing them with the vision necessary to further their careers through mentoring programs while subsidizing their education.

Those who want to apply should visit www.bilisimbursu.com and fill out the form before Jan. 30. Applicants will be invited to Mental HR's Istanbul bureau for a face-to-face interview. Applicants based in other cities or those who live abroad will be able to conduct the interview via the Internet. The list of successful applicants will be announced on April 15.