With support from the National Science Foundation, the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering and the Department of Mathematics of the University of California, Riverside have established a CSEMS Scholars Program for academically talented, low-income undergraduate students in the fields of computer science, engineering, and mathematics. The intent is to encourage such students to maintain enrollment in these disciplines, and then to provide them with a comprehensive plan of scholarship, academic, and professional support throughout their undergraduate years, to improve retention and graduation rates.

The core of the proposed UCR CSEMS Program is NSF scholarship assistance to the targeted student cohorts. Twenty $2,500 freshman scholarships and twenty $2,500 sophomore/transfer student scholarships are to be awarded annually for each of four years, to academically talented but economically disadvantaged undergraduates majoring in the named fields.

The primary goal of the proposed Program is to demonstrate that reduction of financial concern on the part of the students can result in a significant improvement in their retention statistics, and thereby their graduation rates. Under this proposal, only the freshman, sophomore, and transfer students who have been selected as CSEMS Scholars will receive NSF scholarships. However, the intent is to continue financial support to these students through junior/senior year summer internships at companies, or undergraduate research positions with faculty members.

In addition to the financial component, this Program is accompanied by an extensive support infrastructure of academic assistance and advising, career placement services, and faculty and professional mentoring throughout the students’ academic years.

Students receiving the NSF scholarship support will be designated as UCR-COE/NSF Scholars. As they continue into the later phases of the Program, they will be designated as UCR-COE/Advanced Scholars. Together, the group will be referred to as the UCR-COE Scholars.

Partial support for this program is provided by the National Science Foundation’s Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship Program under grant DUE-0220859.

National Science Foundation (NSF)
University of California, Riverside (UCR)
The Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering (COE)
Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship (CSEMS) Program