First STEM CONNECT Scholars selected; Fall 2020 scholarships still available

STEM Connect
STEM Connect

STEM CONNECT is pleased to announce the selection of the first Scholars from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Southeast Community College to its scholarship program and STEM community partnership with SCC and Western Nebraska Community College.

The following 10 UNL students will begin the STEM CONNECT program this spring and are majoring in these disciplines (high school in parentheses after hometown):

Philip Chohon, computer engineering, Wahoo, Nebraska (Bishop Neumann)
Ronit Gandhi, mathematics and biochemistry, Omaha, Nebraska (Millard West)
Emmanuel Lopez Mateo, computer science, Saline County, Nebraska (Crete)
Caleb Marcoux, software engineering, Roca, Nebraska (homeschool)
Alexander Muenster, mathematics and physics, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Lexus Root, mathematics and English, Lincoln, Nebraska (Lincoln High)
Michael Sanders, computer science, Omaha, Nebraska (Central High)
Spencer Schmidt, mathematics and geology, Diller, Nebraska (Diller-Odell)
Abby Seibel, computer engineering, Elkhorn, Nebraska (Elkhorn High)
Sawyer Smith, mathematics and psychology, Colorado Springs, Colorado

The following 6 SCC students also will begin the STEM CONNECT program this spring: Nori Khalaf, Brian Marmon, Sbai Mohammed, Victoire Letissia Nana Noundou, Anaelle Nimpa, and Logan Wessel.

Profiles of these students will be coming soon on our website.

**STEM CONNECT applications for Fall 2020 are still being accepted until March 1.** To be considered for a STEM CONNECT scholarship at one of our institutions, you must either be a current first-year student at that institution or have completed an application to attend that institution. By “first-year student” we mean a student who was either a high school student during the 2018-2019 academic year or who graduated from high school in a previous year and has not previously attended college. Note that having taken college courses while still in high school or having attained sophomore standing because of advanced credit does not disqualify a first-year student from applying for a STEM CONNECT scholarship.

We also welcome applications from non-traditional students who previously pursued a vocational or technical program of study at a community college or who have been out of college for an extended period and have no more than 30 credits applicable to a STEM major.

Depending on financial need, a student might receive a scholarship worth up to $8,000 per year.

The application process for the STEM CONNECT scholarship varies between UNL, SCC and WNCC. At UNL, the application for STEM CONNECT is available through the student's MyRed account under the undergraduate admissions tab. This application is open to all applied or current students who will graduate from high school in May 2020 (or before). Applicants enrolling at UNL also must declare a major in mathematics, computer science, computer engineering or software engineering before the scholarship is awarded, in order to be eligible.

Students applying to SCC or WNCC (and not UNL) will apply for the scholarship via the CSMCE application portal at http://go.unl.edu/scimathapply. The same process applies to current students at SCC and WNCC.

Students enrolling at SCC or WNCC need to enter the Academic Transfer program with STEM-focused career goals that include taking either a math or computer science course each semester. Our Frequently Asked Questions site, https://scimath.unl.edu/stem-connect/faq, describes more about how to apply.

An additional requirement for the scholarship includes an assessment of need, and therefore, applicant eligibility is determined, in part, by FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. For more information regarding the FAFSA application process, go to: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa.

For more information about STEM CONNECT, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, go to our website, https://scimath.unl.edu/stem-connect. If you or your students have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at nebraskamath@unl.edu.