For more information, contact Stephanie Ely, (937) 775-3232. November 4, 2009 600 Choose Ohio First scholars to be recognized as tomorrow’s workforce The inaugural class of Choose Ohio First scholars—nearly 600 students from eight colleges and universities in the Dayton region—will be recognized by Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut, Jim Leftwich, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition and others, at a 2:00 p.m. ceremony Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Dayton Convention Center. U.S. Air Force Col. Bradley D. Spacy, commander of the 88th Air Base Wing and Installation at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, will give the keynote address. “Our future workforce depends on our ability to retain our best and brightest students in Ohio,” said Chancellor Fingerhut, who will be joined at the event by Senator Jon A. Husted via teleconference. “This next class of STEM scholars will become the competitive advantage our businesses need in a global marketplace.” Students chosen to participate in the two-year, $100 million Choose Ohio First Scholarship Program are Ohio residents studying science, technology, engineering, mathematics or medicine (STEM), the health care professions or STEM teacher education. Scholarships Scholarships are awarded in varying amounts, from $1,500 to $4,700 annually, to promising undergraduate and graduate students at Ohio institutions. Bartina Smith, a graduate student in civil engineering at the University of Dayton, will address the attendees on behalf of the hundreds of Choose Ohio First scholarship recipients. A graduate of Central State University, Smith studies water resource management as “the way to touch lives throughout the world.” Her goal is “to travel to countries in Africa and other underdeveloped nations to design and build water treatment systems and educate the people in these countries about the importance of ensuring that water is safe to drink, bathe and play in.” Eight institutions joined together to form the Dayton Regional STEM Collaborative, which was awarded a $3.941 million dollar grant from Chancellor Fingerhut for their proposal, “Growing the STEM Pipeline in the Dayton Region – Becoming an International Center of Excellence for Human Effectiveness/Human Performance.” When coupled with three other COF awards to the region—Ohio's STEM Ability Alliance with Wright State as lead institution; DO-STEM, with Central State University as lead institution; and participation in a statewide Bioinformatics initiative—the Dayton region will share more than $13.2 million in scholarship effectiveness, bioinformatics, and sensors. The collaborative will provide almost $15 million in cost-shared funds for a total commitment of more than $28 million. Institutions in the Dayton Regional Collaborative are Wright State University as lead institution; Central State University; the University of Dayton; Wittenberg University; Clark State, Edison, Sinclair, and Southern State Community Colleges; together with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and numerous other partners from government, industry and health care. The Dayton Regional Collaborative, thanks to the funding, plans to: • Offer approximately 1,000 scholarships through the eight institutions ranging from $1,500 to $4,700. • Increase enrollment in STEM disciplines by a minimum of 10 percent, producing a net additional 335 graduates per year in the targeted STEM disciplines. • Form a Dayton Area Undergraduate Studies Institute to employ a curriculum-sharing model so the STEM scholarship recipients have access to all institutions’ program strengths. • Develop and implement new “inquiry-based” curriculum strategies to attract, retain, prepare and yield a diverse pool of STEM graduates. • Provide undergraduate research, co-op and undergraduate internship opportunities to ensure graduates’ employment and keep them in the state of Ohio. The Dayton Regional Collaborative recognized the region’s need for a STEM-educated workforce to fill the significant needs created as a result of the 2005 Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC),” said David R. Hopkins, president of Wright State University. “With these Choose Ohio First scholars being recognized today, we are seeding the workforce of tomorrow.” The presidents of the eight institutions in the collaborative have been invited to participate in the recognition ceremony Sunday at which each scholarship recipient will receive a commemorative pin. Event sponsors include Mound Laser and Photonics Center, Inc., Future Jobs, Wittenberg University’s Computational Science Department, the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education, and Wright state University with its partner, the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Registration and sponsor tables will be open at 1:30 p.m., and the program will begin at 2 p.m. For more information about the event, contact Michael Reynolds, WSU’s director of STEM support services and outreach, at (937) 775-3203 or at michael.reynolds@wright.edu. For more information about Choose Ohio First, or to download logos from the institutions in the Dayton Regional Collaborative, go to: www.wright.edu/chooseohiofirst. ###
Communications & Marketing
Open Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. 106 Allyn Hall Wright State University 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy. Dayton, OH 45435-0001 (937) 775-3232 Fax: (937) 775-3235 Com_Marketing@wright.edu |
