The AugSTEM scholarships will be funded by a nearly $600,000 grant recently received from the National Science Foundation. The grant means that as many as 30 students in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics will receive important financial support as they pursue their academic careers.

“In today’s world, many students balance educational goals, the demands of family responsibilities, and the pressure to support themselves financially,” said Amy Gort, Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Arts and Sciences. “These AugSTEM scholarships will help students maintain focus on their studies and have more time to explore career paths.”

Development of the grant proposal and the AugSTEM program was possible through a collaboration among faculty and staff.

“Science faculty recognized the high talent of our STEM students, and the tensions they balance between school and the rest of their lives,” said Benjamin Stottrup, Associate Professor of Physics. “We worked as a team to seek NSF funding. Our goal is to continue providing a rigorous academic experience that develops critical thinkers while providing additional programmatic support for these scientists as they transition to the workplace.”

About 50 percent of the scholarship recipients will be transfer students, and will further strengthen Augsburg’s partnerships with community colleges.

“We know from investigating the degree process of transfer students at Augsburg that we receive a significant number of transfer students in STEM,” said Rebekah Dupont, coordinator of the College’s Lois Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP). “Through the AugSTEM program, we hope to collaborate with STEM faculty at community colleges to support more seamless transitions for these students and to connect them more quickly with our continuing students.”

Next steps for the AugSTEM program include recruiting students to apply for the scholarships and making final programming decisions for fall. AugSTEM programming will include workshops and seminars, focus on professional development, and support Augsburg students in their transition to the scientific workplace.

The AugSTEM collaboration was led by Stottrup and Dupont, and the joint effort among faculty and staff will continue through the life of the grant.

To learn more about the grant, visit the .

Augsburg College currently has more than $3 million of active NSF funding. The largest individual active award, for more than $1 million, is for the ongoing work of Physics Professor Mark Engebretson for studies of magnetospheric physics.

Partial support for the AugSTEM program is provided by the National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program under Award Number DUE-1154096.

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Below three students reflect on what they experienced and learned at the conference.

Mohamed Sheikh-Mohamed [middle left]

Firstly, I would say if anybody had an opportunity to go to a place where there will be recruiters in their professions, they should go. From this trip, I connected with many companies, and one thing that shocked me was that the CIA was recruiting at the career fair. I always thought that they hire by invitation only, but it changed what I believed about it.

I learned that with age comes wisdom, so I asked every professional individual that I had a conversation with, “What advice do you have for young guys like us?” The majority of their answers were to look for internships and co-ops because if companies like you while you with them, they will try to hire you as soon as you graduate. They also said that most companies look for diversity and something new that they do not have in the company, so if you have something new to contribute to a company, give it a try and apply for that company. They are also looking [at students who have been in] leadership roles.

This trip really helped me, knowing that there is a high demand of engineers in the upcoming years and almost every major company and corporation needs an engineer of some sort on their team.

Gottlieb Uahengo [far right]

The 38th Annual National Society of Black Engineers was an exciting conference to attend, because it provided the opportunity to observe and participate in critical scientific discussions. There was a multitude of organizations ranging from graduate school programs, multinational companies and various government agencies. The setting was most welcoming and encouraged young African-Americans to participate in the sciences so to better understand the importance of engineering as a multilateral discipline. The atmosphere was further re-enforced by the large number of multinational companies, showcasing their products, technology, and the innovative solutions they have developed to solve pending problems.

I was particularly intrigued by my ability to draw several parallels between my Augsburg education and some of the physics behind the technology of companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin as well as Minnesota native 3M. This realization brought a sense of deep pleasure, as I was able to see real world applications of the many concepts I have studied in my classes.

I also attended some workshops during the conference. A workshop hosted by Space (titled “Restoring American Human Spaceflight”) in which the audience participated in an interactive discussion on the importance of space exploration and its implication to the survival of the human race. I gained a great wealth of knowledge from this workshop as one could sense the depth of knowledge present throughout the room, simply from the ideas and questions that arose during the workshop. We discussed the implications of space exploration and its wear on the astronauts’ health and how these issues could be resolved by the fast growing biomedical engineering field. Such a possibility would allow ease in not only monitoring astronaut health but also pave a way for remote health operations and effectively allowing any trained individual to perform medical procedures in space. The thought of human life outside earth has intrigued scientists the world over, yet as we begin to wrap our collective knowledge around the laws of the universe, we realize more and more that there are still many unexplained anomalies; one should be humbled by the youthful nature of our technology and what more we have yet to discover as well as its impact to life as we know it.

Aside from being mentally stimulating, the conference also provided the opportunity for students to bounce ideas off each other. I had several talks with experts and fellow students, who shared brilliant ideas and journal articles. This kind of environment is surely priceless and one that will drive innovative solution for the future. This invaluable experience would not have been possible without the hardworking and dedication of LSAMP’s “Godmother” (Prof. Rebekah Dupont) who has continually challenged us to excel and apply ourselves.

Amir Rose [middle right]

For myself, going to college has never been anything less than mandatory. I’ve always aspired to further my education in the field of science, physics, and engineering. Attending the NSBE conference this spring helped me grasp a better understanding of what life is like after college for an engineer. The vast amount of fields available in this profession span across a large spectrum of interests from automotive, aeronautics, medical, and many more.

Attending the career fair was a great experience because it gave me the opportunity to speak with people who have been in engineering for many years and to obtain some good advice on how to approach future jobs and internships.  I had the chance to speak with a man who worked for Honda for over 15 years and had gained a great deal of experience in various subsets within the company. Engineering does not only encompass one position, as he explained, [when] entering the company people have a choice whether to do design or manufacturing on vehicles. I thought this was very interesting, and it gave me a new perspective on all of the possibilities available to me after I graduate.

Overall attending the NSBE conference was a great experience, and I hope to attend again next year. It gave me a greater understanding of what I can do with my major and made me eager for all the future possibilities that await.

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At the ceremony, Darden was able to network with representatives of many of Minnesota’s leading technology companies and make connections for future internship and career opportunities. “It was like the Academy Awards of the technology industry in Minnesota,” she said. “Everyone was there.”

Darden said she was especially interested in meeting the women working in the industry. “You hear that the science fields are looking for minorities and females,” she said. “I don’t see that issue much here because Augsburg is very diverse, but at the awards, I didn’t see anyone who looks like me. That was my first time seeing how it really is, and that’s motivating me.”

Darden, a McNair, Phillips, and North Star STEM scholar, plans to attend graduate school in mechanical engineering. She said her dream job would be to build a roller coaster.

Watch a about Jazmine Darden and the other scholarship recipients.

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“You learn what a career would be like,” she says. “You can’t sleep until noon because you have to be at work, and it helps you realize what you want to do.”

Darden was one of more than 60 students who conducted research this summer through several different programs. Her project, which was conducted with mathematics professor John Zobitz, was funded through the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, or LSAMP. The program provides research opportunities through the Northstar STEM Alliance for first-year students of color who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the STEM disciplines.

Darden and five other Northstar STEM researchers worked this summer and also met regularly to discuss their projects and learn about other aspects of the graduate school application process. “What did my friends at the U do?” she says. “Worked at Target. There are so many more opportunities here.”

She adds that Rebekah Dupont’s leadership and support was a very important part of her summer project. Dupont is the LSAMP site coordinator working with the STEM program. “She really took us under her wing and helped us find a bunch of opportunities,” Darden says.

In addition to helping her explore a career in mathematics, Darden says conducting research allowed her to apply principles she learned from the classroom to the real world.

“In Calculus class, you do a bunch of math problems and say, ‘When am I ever going to use this?’ And we were using it,” she says.

In August, Darden and three other students attended a national mathematics conference with Zobitz to present their research. Pictured above [left to right] are Darden, Nana Owusu (LSAMP), John Zobitz, Nghiep Huynh (McNair), and Jeremy Anthony (URGO).

“I was proud of our group’s presentations because we worked hard to make them eye-catching and interesting,” Darden says. “Overall the conference was a great experience and I would recommend it to next year’s researchers.”

When asked about her plans after graduation, Darden confidently answers that she will be going to graduate school for engineering. Not only will she be the first college graduate in her family and the first to earn an advanced degree, she is the first to attend college.

“I don’t know where, but I just know I am going to go,” she says. “I have two older sisters who didn’t go to college, so I feel like they are living the college experience through me. And I know my nieces and nephew are looking up to me, too.”

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