The Brockport Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science Scholars Program - Completing Their Degrees (BPMACS) provides twenty-eight $5000 scholarships per year to economically disadvantaged, academically talented juniors, seniors and masters students in the fields of physics, mathematics and computer science at The College at Brockport, State University of New York. The project's goals are to: 1) recruit, select and award scholarships to 28 talented but economically disadvantaged juniors, seniors and graduate students per year in the designated fields; 2) retain 95% of BPMACS awardees through to graduation with Baccalaureate or Masters degrees; and 3) achieve and then maintain at least 10% minority participation and 50% female participation averaged across the cohort group of the three disciplines.
This is accomplished through a set of activities including, but not limited to the following:
Each BPMACS scholar is assigned a mentor, one of the six faculty members from the Advisory Board, with each mentor having about five BPMACS scholars from their discipline.
BPMACS scholars are encouraged to conduct research projects with faculty in the three departments; the project provides limited funds from the BPMACS administrative budget to cover travel expenses for student research presentations at regional professional meetings.
BPMACS scholars act as Big Brothers or Sisters for lower division Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science (PMACS) freshmen or sophomore scholars in their respective mathematics, physics or computer science field.
BPMACS utilizes the SUNY Brockport recruitment program to recruit high quality students of diverse backgrounds, leverages the focused lower-division PMACS diversity recruitment program, and works with the Admissions Office to recruit additional low-income, academically talented transfer students in the three targeted disciplines.
A sense of community among BPMACS scholars and faculty is developed through semester talks, social events, and exposure to workplace opportunities in their field through alumni and external advisory board presentations.
The project assists BPMACS scholars in obtaining summer and post graduation employment in their field, through the support of the SUNY College at Brockport Career Services Office, an annual Job Fair, academic major faculty members' contacts, and the leveraging of existing college/industry ties and departmental community advisory boards.
Work with the newly established and funded Rochester Area Colleges Center for Excellence in Math and Science efforts to enhance the quality of mathematics and science education at all levels in order to attract and retain BPMACS students who major in these fields.
This project builds upon the previously successful S-STEM funded BMACS program and adds physics as a degree area receiving scholarship support.
