If you’re a minority student interested in an undergraduate degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, you might want to look into the Virginia-North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation at Mason.
Virginia-North Carolina LSAMP Aid
Students in the program have access to stipends in fall and spring semesters and for summer courses, as well as mentoring, tutoring, internships, summer research experiences, a summer bridge program for incoming freshmen and an annual symposium to present their research and projects. Mason and other alliance colleges and universities are working to double the number of minorities, including African American, Hispanic, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders who graduate with degrees in the STEM fields.
The alliance, which is funded until fall 2022 by the National Science Foundation, is named after Louis Stokes who was the first African American congressman from Ohio and co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In March of 2015, Mason hosted the annual symposium featuring speakers from Purdue University, Northrop Grumman, the National Institutes of Health, Deloitte Consulting, and the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as faculty from Volgenau and other universities in the alliance.
"LSAMP established me in a community of scholars, who eagerly accepted the challenge to engage the world around them beyond the classroom; who, as minority students, were passionate about setting new standards of success within their families and amongst their peers; who chose to share in bearing the weight of helping to solve problems bigger than themselves."
About the Alliance:
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Every year, about 20 new students from the incoming freshmen class are invited to participate in the program at Mason. There are more than 100 students in the program at the university.
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Students who do not receive an invitation can request membership, which can be granted after a screening process.
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Mason offers a five-week summer bridge program to selected freshmen at no charge to students.
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The alliance offers summer research opportunities for its students.
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Besides Mason, participating alliance members include: Bennett College for Women; Elizabeth City State University; Johnson C. Smith Universit; Piedmont Virginia Community College; St. Augustine's College; the University of Virginia; Virginia Commonwealth University; and Virginia Tech.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Alok Berry
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, MS 1G5
George Mason University
4400 University Drive,
Fairfax, VA 22030
Phone: 703-993-1606
Fax: 703-993-1601