Funding promotes minorities in science

By CORY SHINDEL
Collegian Staff Writer

With the help of funding from the College of Engineering and the General Electric Fund, the faculty of the Penn State science and engineering departments may become more diverse in the future.

Recently, the two groups joined to form the Penn State General Electric (GE) Faculty for the Future Program, a project aimed at recruiting women and minorities for faculty positions within the engineering and science fields.

The need for such a program at Penn State has become increasingly necessary because science and engineering industries are recruiting and hiring many women and minorities immediately following the completion of their undergraduate degrees. As a result, only a small number of women and minorities are pursuing doctorate degrees and academic careers, said Barbara Bogue, a project coordinator for the Penn State GE Faculty for the Future Program.

The program is supported by a three-year endowment of $318,000 from the General Electric Fund and an additional $222,500 provided by Penn State and the College of Engineering.

Faculty for the Future was created several years ago by the General Electric Fund and has been implemented at many universities. A team from the College of Engineering helped finalize the format of the Penn State version by presenting a proposal outlining additional activities for the project.

Bogue said the program is far-reaching and gives women and minorities the chance to experience many dimensions of a faculty career in science and engineering before deciding to pursue the numerous options offered by an academic career.

"It is nice to have a female professor. By the time you get to graduate school you are used to being the only woman in the class," Andrea Ciasullo (graduate-mechanical engineering) said.

"I am in mechanical engineering and out of 300 graduate students, there are less than 20 women. So if people are interested in having more women, this program can be helpful," Ciasullo added.

The program is attractive to graduate students because it offers needed funding for their research, said Ciasullo, the program's first dissertation fellowship recipient.

After Ciasullo's dissertation adviser left Penn State, she was in dire need of funding to continue her work. When she expressed this need to one of her colleagues, she was put in touch with Bogue and applied for a dissertation fellowship.

In addition to offering support for both graduate and undergraduate research, the program offers a mentoring program that matches women and minority students interested in faculty careers and graduate school with science and engineering faculty. Students participating in the program who express a continued interest in graduate school and faculty careers then have a chance to earn fellowships through a program supported by the General Electric Fund, Bogue said.