FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday, March 24, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 About 40 Tarleton State University students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs are part of a unique program funded by the President\u2019s Fund for Excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The STEM Scholars Program was created in 2021 to improve diversity, equity and inclusion of underrepresented, first-generation and economically disadvantaged students in Tarleton\u2019s STEM fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Member students from within the College of Science and Technology meet monthly in workshops with faculty mentors, alumni and peer-mentors who provide resources and direct professional development activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biology Associate Professor Dr. Dustin Edwards is a faculty mentor in the program that focuses on practical career development exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe meet in the evenings in one big group,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have all the faculty advisors there, someone from each department, and we have an activity we do together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a recent meeting, students prepared a curriculum vitae<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe gave a presentation on what they are, how they\u2019re used, and we gave students a template to work with,\u201d Dr. Edwards said. \u201cThe students all worked together, compared their work, tweaked them for their own style and then submitted them to the mentors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mentors provided instant feedback and responded to questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At other gatherings mentors Drs. Lynal Albert and Rajani Srinivasan shared experiences and advice applying for post-graduate degree programs and interviewing. Another time, faculty mentor Dr. Zahra Pournorouz led members in submitting a scholarship application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have a lot of students from families who have not had siblings in college before. In a lot of cases they might not know what these things are. Our goal is to make sure they have this valuable information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One student in the program, senior math major Aurod Ounsinegad from Austin\u2019s Vandegrift High School, visited Tarleton\u2019s Stephenville campus several times for high school FFA career development events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI enjoyed being on campus, the environment here and how affordable it is,\u201d he said. \u201cI absolutely loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was one of several invited speakers to present about the benefits of participating in student organizations for the first STEM Scholars meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI knew a lot of the professors, and they explained the idea of giving resources to students in STEM programs,\u201d he said. \u201cI really loved the idea of getting more real-world experience and knowing what my career is going to look like after I get my degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aurod was a biomedical major before switching to math. He plans to get his PhD in biomedical informatics and wants to work for Pfizer or the Centers for Disease Control as a lab instructor using mathematical modeling to mitigate the spread of arthropod-borne viruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He credits the STEM Scholars program with boosting his knowledge about getting into graduate school as well as how to properly present himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Membership in STEM Scholars is open to students in any science, technology, engineering or math major. For more information regarding this program, please contact Drs. Eileen Faulkenberry, Lynal Albert, Dustin Edwards, Chris Mitchell, Zahra Pournorouz, or Rajani Srinivasan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About 40 Tarleton State University students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs are part of a unique program funded by the President\u2019s Fund for Excellence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,423],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-45970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-academics-research","tag-college-of-science-mathematics"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2022\/04\/7003-300x200.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["College of Science & Mathematics<\/a>"],"unlinked":["College of Science & Mathematics<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on March 24, 2022","modified":"Updated on April 29, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on March 24, 2022 2:08 pm","modified":"Updated on April 29, 2022 2:09 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Stone pillar with \"Tarleton\" and flags behind purple flowers.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53077,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45970\/revisions\/53077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}