CSEMS IV at CAL

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This work builds on previous and current CSEMS awards. CSEMS IV follows a single cohort of freshman and sophomore students over a four-year period, and awards scholarships to twenty-nine economically disadvantaged students, with a special emphasis on students from underrepresented groups in engineering and science. Recruitment of the CSEMS Scholars targets three groups: 1) freshmen admitted for Fall 2003 or Spring 2004, 2) freshmen participating in the Multicultural Engineering Program Summer 2003 Pre-Engineering Program, and 3) freshmen and sophomores participating in academic workshops and mathematics placement testing during summer orientation offered by the Coalition for Excellence and Diversity in Mathematics, Science and Engineering. This group includes students from majors in the College of Engineering, chemical engineering majors in the College of Chemistry, and students in the College of Letters in Science who are completing coursework to pursue (a) the computer science or mathematics majors in the College of Letters and Science or (b) a major in the College of Engineering. A committee of faculty and staff from Coalition academic support programs, which employs a comprehensive approach in evaluating each student's academic merit and professionalism, chooses students. Intellectual Merit: CSEMS scholars participate in a variety of retention-related activities tied to the existing student support infrastructure of the Center for Underrepresented Engineering Students, the Coalition for Excellence and Diversity in Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, the EECS Center for Undergraduate Matters and other partner programs. This includes faculty advising, academic excellence workshops, tutoring, mentoring, advising, internships in industry and/or research experience, and assistance with graduate school applications or job placement. A unifying theme of the CSEMS IV program is the increase student retention by helping each student develop into a committed member of the engineering and academic community. Broader Impacts: There is an increasing shortfall in the number of qualified students that are able to fill the need for computer science and engineering professionals in the workforce. Students' financial troubles are increasingly likely to interrupt and delay their degree completion. 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. Indeed, the scholarship support from the CSEMS IV program also facilitates students' ability to enrich their educational experience with activities that are not necessarily tied to financial obligations, such as undergraduate research, tutoring, and teaching. By decreasing students' loan debt upon graduation, these scholarships may also encourage students to pursue graduate degrees before entering the technical workforce.