Hello Math Educators,
My name is Doug Pellatz, and I am the academic advisor and scholarship administrator for the Department of Mathematics at UNL. I am hoping for a moment of your time to provide you with some information about our Dean H. and Floreen G. Eastman Scholarship in Mathematics, the STEM CONNECT Scholarship program, and the Nebraska Career Scholarship program.
Many years ago, the Department of Mathematics at UNL was honored with a sizeable donation from Dean and Floreen Eastman to help fund the education of students interested in Mathematics from the state of Nebraska. The Eastman Scholarship fund allows us to award several scholarships to incoming freshmen Mathematics majors who graduate from a Nebraska high school each year. This scholarship awards up to $4,000 for the first year at UNL, and students can re-apply every year for up to a total of four years. In addition, our scholarship can be stacked with other UNL scholarships such as the Chancellors, Regents, Honors, and Math Day Scholarships. Unfortunately, the number of students applying for this scholarship opportunity has declined even though our numbers of incoming Mathematics students have remained relatively the same.
I am hoping that you can help us spread the word about this scholarship opportunity that is reserved just for Nebraska high school graduates interested in studying Mathematics at UNL. Applying for the Dean H. and Floreen G. Eastman Scholarship in Mathematics is relatively easy for high school seniors. First, your students should complete an application to UNL during the fall semester of their senior year. Then, they can complete our short scholarship application through the Freshmen Eastman Scholarship Application button available at https://go.unl.edu/eastman. Our application requires a short essay concerning their interests and experiences in Mathematics and two letters of recommendation. The letters of recommendation should be from people qualified to comment on the student's academic abilities, accomplishments, and potential in Mathematics. The application will also allow students to explain how they would have ranked or finished at Math Day in 2020, had we done the PROBE I and II exams. Recipients will be selected based on their application materials, high school GPA, high school Math coursework, and ACT and/or SAT scores. The Eastman scholarship application will be available from the beginning of November to until February 1st each year, and we hope to have a large pool of candidates from which to select several recipients.
Recently, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln was awarded an S-STEM grant from the National Science Foundation to support students majoring in Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Software Engineering. The STEM CONNECT program supports students who start their college careers at Southeast Community College and Western Nebraska Community College and plan to transfer to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to complete their undergraduate degree. Interested students should be directed to https://scimath.unl.edu/stem-connect/ for more information about the STEM CONNECT Scholarship program. If you or your students have questions about the STEM CONNECT Scholarship program, please contact nebraskamath@unl.edu.
The Nebraska Career Scholarship program is a program with direct funding from the State of Nebraska that supports students pursuing degrees in certain programs in high-demand fields like engineering, mathematics, and information technology.The Nebraska Career Scholarship is $8,000 minimum per year ($4,000 per semester) and is renewable if students maintain a 2.5 cumulative GPA and complete 30 credit hours each academic year. Scholarship recipients are required to complete a Nebraska-based internship before graduation. Students interested in studying Mathematics at UNL are automatically considered for the Nebraska Career Scholarship program when they apply for admission and complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Additional information about the Nebraska Career Scholarship program can be found here: https://admissions.unl.edu/cost/#scholarships/nebraska-career-scholarship-freshman. We are hoping that as many Math majors can be awarded this scholarship as possible, and we are dedicated to help students find Nebraska-based internships that will help them learn about the applications of Mathematics to real-world problem solving. If you or your students have questions about the Nebraska Career Scholarship program, please contact the UNL Office of Admissions at admissions@unl.edu or 402-472-2023.
If you or your students have any questions about the Eastman Scholarship or our undergraduate program in Mathematics, please don’t hesitate to contact me at dpellatz@unl.edu or 402-472-4319. You can also contact Dr. Petronela Radu, Faculty Advisor for Mathematics and Chair of the Math Scholarship Committee, at pradu@unl.edu or 402-472-9130.
Sincerely,
Doug
Doug Pellatz
Academic Advisor, Geology, Mathematics, and Meteorology-Climatology
209 Avery Hall
P.O. Box 880130
Lincoln, NE 68588-0130
Email: dpellatz@unl.edu
Phone: 402-472-4319
Fax: 402-472-8466
https://www.math.unl.edu/