SFS Scholarship: Auburn-Tuskegee-Albany State-Western New Mexico Scholarship Partnership

Auburn University, Auburn AL

Investigators

Abstract

Auburn University is adding three new cohorts to its existing SFS program. The SFS scholarship program at Auburn helps mitigate the severe shortage of technically qualified information assurance personnel in the Federal Civil Service. A unique aspect of this program is its successful engagement with three minority institutions: Albany State University (an HBCU), Tuskegee University (an HBCU) and Western New Mexico University (an HSI). Auburn is a National Security Agency Center of Academic Excellence in both Information Assurance Education and in Research and its outreach activities in Huntsville and Montgomery areas enable alignment of scholarship recipients with Federal agencies early in their academic careers. In fact, more than half of the entering SFS students already have a prior SFS-qualifying internship. SFS students are completing federally recognized certificate programs that make them more competitive for placement in the U.S. Civil Service. The program has a successful record working with high-risk under-served students and placing them in the federal government. This project is contributing to the safeguarding of critical U.S. network and system infrastructure by renewing and expanding a successful SFS Scholarship Program at Auburn and Tuskegee University, and by establishing strong partnerships and recruiting pipelines with programs at Albany State University and Western New Mexico University. This project is developing unique recruiting and retention techniques for community college engagement. Auburn has a strong record of graduating engineers from under-represented groups and by working with its Minority Engineering Program (MEP), it is awarding at least half of the scholarships to students from under-represented groups.