
Christine Nguyen, an associate professor in CEET’s Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, is part of a core group of NIU professors leading a $2 million initiative to help high-achieving, low-income students in pursuit of a STEM degree.
The National Science Foundation grant builds on a prior NSF grant that helped 49 students in a similar way. This one, which will support at least 68 students, has been expanded to include CEET students, said Ralph Wheeler, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry who is spearheading the project.
Dubbed “Scholarships and Enhanced Mentoring to Promote Equity and Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics,” the project begins in January 2025.
For Nguyen, whose parents came from Vietnam, the grant hits close to home. She was the first member of her family to earn a doctoral degree in the U.S. and benefited from a two-year mentoring program when she was an undergraduate at Northwestern University. Her parents worked extra shifts to support her and her two brothers to secure a college education.
“I had student loans and worked 15 to 20 hours a week as a student worker for all four years, including summers, to afford textbooks, a laptop and other course materials,” Nguyen recalled. “Over the years at CEET, I have met many highly talented students that would benefit from a scholarship like this. I’m really excited that this opportunity includes students in CEET.”
The project will recruit college transfer students or rising juniors who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry/biochemistry, computer science, engineering, geosciences, mathematics, physics or statistics. The focus is to help them graduate and embark on technical careers, with research, internship and mentoring opportunities.
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