Building a Community of MESA/STEM Scholars Initiative

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Through the "Building a Community of MESA/STEM Scholars Initiative" (MESA stands for Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement), City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is supporting a total of up to 250 scholarships for a diverse group of academically talented, financially needy students across the STEM disciplines. Each year, CCSF recruits a minimum of 40 students from the CCSF School of Science and Mathematics to apply for the S-STEM scholarship program who are both financially needy and academically talented - and who are representative of the great diversity of CCSF overall. Scholarship participants receive one-on-one academic counseling and participate in cohort-building activities that expose and link them to a wide range of career opportunities and provide them with personal empowerment strategies.The project provides students access to numerous innovative initiatives in the STEM fields currently in place at CCSF, including cutting-edge programs in biotechnology (such as stem cell technology), computer networking and information technology (including the convergence of optical and network systems), and several others. As a community college, CCSF provides one of the most affordable educational options in the San Francisco Bay Area, and through this program it offers extraordinary educational access to STEM students from a broad range of ethnic, economic, cultural, and age backgrounds. Due to its affordability, even a small award substantially relieves CCSF students of financial burdens that often inhibit their academic success.