Sloan
and GE Program Highlights
GE Faculty for the Future Program
The GE Fund added the MSU College of Engineering to their Faculty for the Future Program in 1999 with a two-year grant. The goal of our program is to increase the number of U.S. women and underrepresented minorities in faculty positions in engineering. The MSU program has two components, one for graduate students and one for undergraduates.
Graduate Student FFF Program
The goal of the graduate student component is to select two prospective faculty members each year from current MSU engineering doctoral students. Selected students will have access to several benefits: a $15,000 fellowship stipend, a $5,000 "forgivable loan," $5,000 for tuition and fees, $1,000 for travel to conferences or other professional development, and a $15,000 "faculty coupon." Upon being named a GE FFF fellow, each student submits a budget for drawing on these resources.The forgivable loan is interest-free while the student is enrolled in a doctoral program and for up to two years after completing the PhD (if the student is in a post-doctoral program or pursuing other professional development). The loan is forgiven at the rate of 25 percent per year for each year that the student is employed full-time in a faculty position in a college or university. When the student accepts his/her first faculty position, a grant (faculty coupon) of $15,000 is made to the employing institution for use by the faculty member.
Each fellow agrees to participate in the College of Engineering's two-semester program for Certification in College Teaching. Students attend a one-credit seminar the first semester, then spend a semester as a teaching apprentice with a faculty member of their choice.
The Graduate Program Coordinators of the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Materials Science & Mechanics, and Mechanical Engineering were each invited to nominate one U.S. woman or underrepresented minority doctoral student for the GE FFF Program. The fellows selected were a third-year doctoral student in CSE and a second-year doctoral student in ECE. Both have had extensive teaching experience and both aspire to become faculty members in minority-serving institutions.
Undergraduate Student GE FFF Program
This part of the program is designed to encourage undergraduates to aspire to become faculty members. Individual letters were written soliciting applications to the GE FFF Undergraduate Program from all U.S. women and underrepresented minority engineering majors with senior standing and grade point averages of 3.0 or higher (over 150 students). The letters described the two components of the undergraduate program: ten $300 scholarships and two $500 per month undergraduate research assistantships. A dozen applications were received, supported by faculty recommendations. Two of the applicants had identified faculty mentors for research assistantships. All the applicants were women; four were African American and one was Hispanic. All the applicants were invited to participate in the program.Two additional African American women who were interested in the program's objectives participated in many of the activities. One will continue to be enrolled as an MSU undergraduate in Fall 2000, the other has been accepted into the master's programs of two universities and intends to begin graduate studies Fall 2000 or Spring 2001.
Students were required to attend a seminar that met approximately every two weeks and to submit copies of an application to graduate school and an application for a fellowship. Fall semester seminar topics included GRE test preparation, undergraduate research opportunities, career options in academia, and finding funding sources. Guest discussion leaders included the Dean of the College of Engineering. Preparation of the applications was facilitated by hands-on workshops during which the students began completing applications on-line. For the Spring semester seminars, each participant selected a chapter of Richard M. Reis' Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering (IEEE Press, 1997) to summarize for the group. The GE FFF graduate student fellows and a woman associate professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, discussed innovative college teaching methods and ways to acquire expertise in them. Leadership in the seminars was provided by graduate assistants. On the evaluation of the program distributed at the conclusion of the second semester, the students were positive about the program and especially appreciated the book discussion and opportunities to talk with faculty and current graduate students about their experiences.
First Year Outcomes
Both GE FFF graduate fellows have completed
the College Teaching Certification seminar and selected teaching mentors
for Fall 2000. Both have submitted plans for using the stipend and tuition
fellowship and the forgivable loan. Both have made significant progress
toward completing their PhDs.
One of the undergraduate research assistants resigned the position after
two months. She continued to participate in the seminars during Spring
semester. The second assistant worked throughout spring semester; as a
result of her research, she presented a refereed poster, "Planning Sensing
and Control for Nanomanipulation of Biological Objects" (B. Goolsby, V.
Ayres, N. Xi, and F. Salam, June 2000), at the NIH-sponsored Symposium
on Nanoscience & Nanotechnology. After a summer internship at Honeywell,
this student will continue as an ECE master's student and GEM fellow.
Seven of the ten scholars selected participated fully
in the program and received scholarships. One student accepted an internship
position for Spring semester and will be completing the program in Fall
2000. One student stopped participating in the program after two sessions.
A third participated in most sessions and will be continuing to graduate
school but did not fulfill all the requirements for receiving a scholarship.
Nine of the participants completed applications
to graduate school; thus far, seven have been accepted into at least one
graduate program. Eight of the participants applied for external fellowships.
Two students received GEM master's fellowships and one was awarded an
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Two participants received their MSU
BS degrees in December 1999. As mentioned previously, one entered the
MSU master's program and worked as a research assistant for a CSE professor.
In Fall 2000 she will transfer to the PhD program at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology with her NSF fellowship. Another participant worked for
several months and has returned to Michigan State in the MS program in
ECE; she is working as a research assistant.
Four of the participants will receive their
BS degrees during the next academic year. One was away from campus Spring
semester on a co-op job; she will complete the program in Fall 2000. We
will work with all four students on their applications for graduate schools
and fellowships.