NSF Scholars Program

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This project awards scholarships to upper- division students in engineering, engineering technology, computer science, and mathematics. While the applications are to be open to all who seek the support, special mailings and contact is to be made to all upper-division Latino, African American, and Native American students in the designated majors, encouraging them to apply. The university is a large, urban, Hispanic-serving, polytechnic university with a diverse population of largely first-generation college students. The pool of economically disadvantaged under-represented students in engineering, engineering technology, computer science, and mathematics is large. The well-established, comprehensive retention programs for Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans serve to provide the advising, mentoring, tracking, and professional development support so necessary to shorten the time to graduation for the scholarship recipients. The active collaboration among program staff and faculty in the two colleges provides a comprehensive support system for the scholars. Through this scholarship program, the recipients have an incentive to become more efficient in their course scheduling and they are given timely advising to make wise choices in structuring their remaining course work. The active involvement of industry partners in resume critiques, mock interviews, an "evening with industry," and a scholars reception all serve to increase their job readiness. The NSF Scholars receive first consideration for summer job placement from the campus' industry partners. Thus the NSF Scholars Program increases the likelihood that financially needy students decrease their hours worked while in school, that they have closer contact with their academic advisors, and that they have increased interaction with high tech employers. Therefore, the program should greatly increase the likelihood that highly qualified CSEM students graduate in a timely fashion and exit college ready to assume positions of responsibility in industry.