Salt Lake City’s Ibukunoluwa Salako Named Paliwal Club of 100 STEAM Scholar by 1,000 Dreams Fund

Ibukunoluwa Salako, a civil and environmental engineering student at the University of Utah from Salt Lake City, has been selected as a Paliwal Club of 100 STEAM Scholar by 1,000 Dreams Fund (1DF), a national nonprofit that provides scholarships, mentorship and career opportunities to talented young women and students in need.

“Engineering the infrastructure that communities depend on is the work I want to spend my life doing, and the Paliwal Scholarship is making that possible. It means everything to be supported by people who believe in what I’m building toward,” Salako said.

The Paliwal Club of 100 Scholars Program, made possible by the Ila and Dinesh Paliwal Foundation, supports women pursuing degrees in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) and music. Through scholarship funding and ongoing community, the program helps recipients pursue technical and creative work in fields where women remain underrepresented. Past Paliwal Scholars have gone on to careers in engineering, research, environmental science and education, joining a growing community of 1DF alumnae shaping the next decade of women’s leadership across STEAM and the arts.

Salako’s selection comes as 1DF celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2026, a milestone marking a decade of investment in talented young women through scholarships, mentorship and other critical resources. Since launching in 2016, 1DF has distributed more than $1.1 million in funding to dreamers across 41 states and 10 countries, with past scholars going on to careers in engineering, research, environmental science and education. As 1DF works toward its Vision 2030 goal of reaching 50,000 dreamers, Salako joins the next generation of scholars the Paliwal Club of 100 Scholars Program was built to launch.

“When I started 1DF nearly 10 years ago, the dream was always to back young women like Ibukunoluwa — students with real talent and real determination who just need someone to invest in what comes next. Watching this organization grow from a handful of scholarships to a decade of impact, and now to scholars like Ibukunoluwa stepping into the kinds of engineering and STEAM careers that shape how communities build, design and move forward, is exactly why we built 1DF. She represents the next chapter of this work, and we couldn’t be prouder to welcome her into our community of dreamers,” said Christie Garton, founder and CEO of 1,000 Dreams Fund.

About 1,000 Dreams Fund

1,000 Dreams Fund (1DF) is a national nonprofit that empowers the dreams of talented women and students in need with scholarships, mentorship and other critical resources. 1DF believes that big obstacles should never stand in the way of big dreams. Since its launch in 2016, over $1.1 million in funding has been granted to talented young women in need, helping them pay for the “extras” in school like study abroad, tech devices for the classroom and travel to conferences and seminars. 1DF has been featured in NBCNews.com, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Entrepreneur, TODAY and others. To learn more about 1DF, visit 1000dreamsfund.org.