This project is providing twenty-five scholarships per semester to academically talented and financially needy students pursuing Bachelor's degrees in engineering, computer science engineering, or an Associate's degree in science. Various support services and associated student activities are enhancing the academic experience of the scholarship recipients. The project has identified a specific opportunity to prepare students to meet the demands of the high technology industries in its region. Thus it features strong interactions with companies in the area that offer internship and mentoring opportunities for the scholars. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its leveraging of prior successful projects that offer existing student support structures that help to promote academic quality in the targeted STEM disciplines. The project's broader impacts are felt through activities such as field trips and participation in professional societies, that supplement the students' regular classroom interactions so as to maintain their interest in the STEM disciplines. The project also is striving to award forty percent of its scholarships to groups traditionally underrepresented in the STEM disciplines so as to promote a more diverse workforce. In the long term the project is benefiting society by increasing the number of highly skilled, well-educated members in the high-tech workforce.
