Computer Science, Engineering and Math Scholarships: CSEMS III at CAL

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) of the University of California at Berkeley Center for Underrepresented Engineering Students (CUES) administers the "CSEMS at Cal III" program, which builds on two current CSEMS at Cal awards being administered by MEP. These prior CSEMS grants serve two two-year cohorts of students whose outcomes can be studied as a basis for future scholarship endeavors. "CSEMS at Cal III" is following a single cohort of freshman and sophomore students over a four-year period, and it awards scholarships of $3125 per year to twenty-nine economically disadvantaged students, with a special emphasis on students from underrepresented groups in engineering and science. Recruitment of the Cal-CSEMS Scholars targets three groups: 1) freshmen admitted for Fall 2002 or Spring 2003, 2) freshmen participating in the MEP Summer Pre-Engineering Program 2002, and 3) freshmen and sophomores participating in academic workshops and mathematics placement testing during Cal Summer Orientation (CalSO) offered by the Coalition for Excellence and Diversity in Mathematics, Science and Engineering. This group includes students from majors in Berkeley's College of Engineering, chemical engineering majors in the College of Chemistry, and students in the computer science or mathematics majors in the College of Letters and Science. All students targeted for the scholarships demonstrate financial need. Students are chosen by a committee of Berkeley faculty and staff from Coalition academic support programs, which employ a comprehensive approach in evaluating each student's academic merit and professionalism. Currently, 60% of Berkeley students demonstrate some type of financial need and are receiving need-based support in order to attend college. Financial need is perhaps a more serious impediment to timely completion of engineering degrees--the technical course load is often not compatible with long hours of outside work. Cal-CSEMS scholars participate in a variety of retention-related activities tied to the existing student support infrastructure of CUES, the EECS Center for Undergraduate Matters, and other partner programs. This includes faculty advising, academic excellence workshops, tutoring, mentoring, internships in industry and/or research experience, and assistance with graduate school applications or job placement. A unifying theme of the "CSEMS at Cal" program is to increase student retention by helping each student develop into a committed member of the engineering and academic community.