NSF Scholarship Program (New Version)
Activities and Requirements for Awardees
Page For Students Who Entered the Scholarship Program After May 2004
NSF Scholarship awardees were required to take part in certain activities in order to continue
to receive their NSF scholarships. They also had to maintain their grades and meet other requirements
in order to continue to receive their NSF scholarships as explained below.
The requirements were designed to help students to succeed and were not intented to be overly demanding.
Note that the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior designations were based on the
typical four years to reach graduation. Students who did not fit neatly into these categories
were told to see Br. David Carlson
or Dr. Cynthia Martincic.
For example, transfer and change of major students were often given a a customized
list of activities from several of these years.
Warning
Failure by a student to meet the requirements of the scholarship program generally meant the
loss of the scholarship. Therefore, students were urged to pay close attention to these requirements.
Students who lost their NSF scholarships could regain them later if they then met the program
requirements.
Required Activities
- Freshman Year
- Freshmen were assigned a junior or senior student mentor. (The contact information
on this was sent to freshmen sometime during the first few weeks of the fall semester.)
Freshmen were to meet at least 3 times per semester with their mentors.
This could be done in person or via email or phone. This was promoted as an
opportunity to learn how to succeed in classes, to ask for assistance
with course scheduling, and to find out better what the CIS major was about.
Mentors were occasionally asked to report on how the program was proceeding.
- Freshmen were required during the academic year to attend at least 2
career/mentoring meetings sponsored by this NSF project. There were at
least 4 such meetings during the academic year, often involving guest speakers.
- Some freshmen were required by the CIS faculty to meet with tutors
and/or to attend review sessions.
- Sophomore Year
- Sophomores were assigned email-based mentors. (The contact information on this
was sent to sophomores sometime during the first few weeks of the fall semester.)
These mentors were volunteers from industry as well as CIS alumni. Awardees were encouraged to
use this program to learn more about computing careers and to get advice on how to
succeed in the field. Faculty advisors sometimes asked sophomores to describe
how this mentoring program was going for them.
- Sophomores were required during the academic year to attend at least 2
career/mentoring meetings sponsored by this NSF project. There were at
least 4 such meetings during the academic year, often involving guest speakers.
- Some sophomores were required by the CIS faculty to meet with tutors
and/or to attend review sessions.
- Junior and Senior Year
- Students were to try to obtain an
internship in computing.
- One service-related activity was required from among the following. Students
were asked sometime during the first few weeks of the fall semester
to give their top 2 preferences. The first option was the
most available one. None of these activities was designed to take a lot of time.
On occasion another valuable activity might be approved as a substitute for those listed.
- Serve as a mentor for freshmen CIS majors.
- Work as a tutor in the CIS lab (or perhaps as an individual tutor).
- Run a review session for a class under the direction of a CIS professor.
- Some opportunities were found to assist students at local elementary
schools and above with technology. Indirectly the awardee then functioned as
a role model for these students.
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Recommended Activities
- Awardees were encouraged to apply for Palumbo grants for student research and to participate
in other research programs and projects to show their computer science or IT abilities.
- All awardees, and indeed all CIS majors, were encouraged to attend the
talks sponsored by this NSF project.
- Those who were not sophomores but who wanted to have an email-based mentor could request
this by contacting Br. David.
- All CIS majors were strongly encouraged to complete an internship in computing.
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Main Requirements for Continued Reception of NSF Scholarships
- Must be a full-time CIS major at Saint Vincent College.
- Maintain a GPA of 2.5 overall and a GPA of 2.8 in the CIS major.
- Participation in the program activities as explained above.
- Demonstrated financial need (as determined by the Financial Aid Office with the help of the FAFSA).
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This scholarship program was supported by the National Science Foundation's
Computer Science,
Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarships program under grant DUE-0122934.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of
the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Go to the main NSF-CIS Scholarship Program Page
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