Office of Public Relations

Pomona, NJ  08240

 

Stockton Recruiting Female and Minority Computer Science and Math Majors for Scholarships in $396,000 NSF Grant

Annual Awards $3,000 for Four Years Being Presented;

Academic Support Included for Recipients, Non-minorities

Eligible and Encouraged to Apply

 

For Immediate Release

November 15, 2003

 

Contact:   Tim Kelly

                  Holly Euler

                  Stockton Public Relations

                  (609) 652-4950

 

 

 

POMONA, NJ Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has received a $396,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in recognition of its innovative work in making mathematics and computer science programs more attractive and accessible to women and minority students.  Thirty Stockton talented but financially disadvantaged students will be awarded scholarships through the grant in the amount of $3,000 per year for up to four years. The college is encouraging applications by minority and female students.

 

We are thrilled to have been awarded these funds and to have been recognized for helping to bridge the gender and minority gaps in the training of computer and mathematics professionals, said Dr. Jill Gerhardt of Ventnor, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Information Systems, whose proposal successfully garnered the funding for the local college. Her management team on the grant includes Drs. Michael Olan, Saralyn Mathis of Wildwood, and Mohammad Neilforoshan of Wellesley, Mass. from the computer science program and Dr. Chia-Lin Wu of Mays Landing and Dr. Judith Vogel of Delran from the math program.

 

According to the United States Office of Technology Policy, thousands of new information technology jobs are expected to increase in the country by the end of the

 

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NSF Grant at Stockton College/page 2

 

decade. Three-fourths of these jobs will require a bachelors degree. Currently, Stocktons student population is nearly 60 percent female, but only 52% of the Math program is female and only 27% of the computer science program is female. Because of these statistics, Stocktons project concentrates on support services for computer majors and especially for present and future female computer students.

 

Some of the support services, offered to insure the success of the scholarship recipients, include:

 

         A new 1-credit Bridges Connecting Computer Science and Calculus course

         An already-proven Women in Computing course which has been very successful

         Tutoring services in Programming

         Research Seminar

         Mentoring Program in which students are matched up with faculty role models

 

So many of our students have to work fulltime and part-time jobs just to make ends meet and to get through their studies, Gerhardt said. With these scholarships, some of our students will be able to study more and perhaps work (at jobs) a little less.  And with the exception of the mentoring program, the great thing about these services is, they are open to all of our math and computer science students, not only our scholarship recipients.

 

One of the keys to the program is the Bridges course, taught by Stockton professors Wu and Vogel, in which the importance of calculus to the world around us and to the computer field is stressed. So often, when students are unsuccessful in calculus it is because they are not motivated. They do not see why it is relevant, Gerhardt said. This course does a great job of filling the void.

 

The Women in Computing Course taught by Mathis, is designed to recruit women as Computer Information Systems majors by building their confidence and interest in strengthening computer skills. Gerhardt believes fewer women have traditionally been drawn to the field because more boys play with computer games when they are young.

 

It has nothing to do with ability, she maintains. Boys are more interested in video games and more comfortable sitting alone in front of a computer.  Girls as a rule tend to be more social.  They would probably be more interested in computers at a younger age if more video games were designed to be played as a group instead of as an individual.

 

A research component to the project offered by Neilforoshan enables seniors to earn four credits for papers presented at a computer society conference related to their studies. Dr. Mike Olan will train programming tutors who will be available to the students. Gerhardt said the Stockton grants were particularly welcome because 68 percent of the Colleges students qualified for some form of financial aid and 23 percent were first generation college students with limited academic advantages. .