UNM student Kenneth Armijo says his cooperative work experience through the University's NASA Training Project may be the ticket to a great job after graduation.
Armijo, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, said he hopes to work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston again at the end of the semester.
"This program has really helped in multiple ways, if anything, it's helped in the sense that you realize the other opportunities that are out there," Armijo said. He said students in the program benefit from financial assistance as well as tutoring, advisement and contacts with prospective employers.
The scholarship program, funded by exclusively by NASA, supports under-represented and needy students interested in pursuing engineering, mathematics or physics degrees at UNM. The 95 students in the program must be able to maintain at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average. As part of the agreement, recipients must be willing to accept a NASA cooperative, internship or research position if offered.
Doug Williams, a program assistant for the past five years, said that since freshmen and transfer students often are adjusting to a new environments, many may not be sure they want to continue as engineering or science majors. However, once students in the program finish school, Williams said job placement or graduate study is assured.
"Once they graduate out of the program, I think the success rate is probably about 100 percent as far as going on to either a NASA site or into corporations or into graduate school," Williams said.
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The success rate is one reason why NASA has given the program a new five-year funding grant.
Dannelle Sierra, a freshman mechanical engineering major in the program, said it helps students by monitoring their study hours. Students in the program must log-in during their study time.
"They make you log your study hours, so you're not only forced to study, I mean, you study anyway, but you're encouraged to study more," Sierra said. "You have to have like 140 (hours) at the end of the semester."
Williams said the program has recently required students to be involved in community service. Last fall, Armijo visited the Youth Diagnostic and Development Center downtown, and talked to troubled teens about how to improve their lives and possibly aim for college. Upperclassmen in the program are also required to provide tutoring or mentoring to freshmen as Armijo did for part of last summer.
"I was a tutor this past summer in a sub-program of NASA Training Project, which is called MEMS, Minority Engineering, Math and Science; there I've been a tutor for the past two summers," Armijo said.
Sierra, who hopes to complete an internship or co-op this summer, said she learned about the NASA Training Project while participating in UNM's Minority, Engineering, Math and Science tutoring program during the summer.
Alicia Lopez, a sophomore mechanical engineering student who wants to work in biomedical engineering, holds two jobs while she attends school. One of those is as a tutor for the Diversity Engineering program. Lopez recently joined the NASA Training Project and said it will be helpful for finishing school, finding work experience and getting a job.
"I had no idea what it was all about, but I am certainly glad that I joined," Lopez said.
