AABE – MI Chapter Student Scholars Partners Program (SSPP)

Scholarship Committee

Date: May 6th, 2008

AABE Michigan Chapter Scholarship Committee

Carmen Bender – Chair Sheila Patterson Darrell White Carrie Jones Jason Sharp Alex Brown Noble Billingsley

Challenge and Opportunity Nationally fewer

minorities are going into the fields of mathematics, science and engineering and even fewer are graduating.

Challenge and Opportunity Studies have shown that

mentoring provides a support network that increases students' self-confidence and feeling of worth to the science, mathematics and engineering fields (Goodman Research Group, 2002). 

Challenge and Opportunity While AABE-MI Chapter

successfully supports minority youth with college scholarships, student scholars continually ask for simple guidance in areas such as work load prioritization, career planning, internships and advice on college transitional challenges.

Challenge and Opportunity We see an opportunity

to help student scholars starting this year through the AABE Michigan Chapter Student Scholars Partners Program (SSPP).

What is SSPP? The Student Scholars Partners Program provides an

opportunity for AABE-MI chapter members to coach student scholars through their college experience.

The program matches volunteers with student scholars for a one year commitment starting May and ending in April.

Annually new student scholars will be added and volunteers will be matched with new students.

Program Guidelines Partners are encouraged to:

Call their student scholars at least once a quarter to see how classes are going, discuss course selection and sequence, issues they are having etc.

Call parents once a semester to address questions they may have about their child’s progress in college.

Program Guidelines Partners are encouraged to:

Provide high level recommendations for classes and encourage student scholars to see their academic advisor for advice requirements.

Provide encouragement and share testimonials of their experiences in overcoming challenges and obstacles.

Program Guidelines Student Scholars younger than 18 years

old: Parents have the option to request a

replacement of the assigned partner. Parents have the option to sit in on

partner discussion calls, personal meetings, etc.

Once scholar turns 18, we recommend that the partner, scholar, and the scholar’s parents have a conversation on how the correspondence should continue.

All personal letters shall be sent “To the Parents Of…” rather than the students themselves, while under the age of 18.

Program Guidelines Student scholars must complete

a semiannual questionnaire that collects GPA, current major, current address, and resume information after each school semester.

The benefit of collecting this information is to: Keep official track of how our

student scholars our doing. Promote the success of our

student scholars and view eligibility for follow up scholarship opportunities.

Assure the donors that their money is going to successful student scholars.

Notify donors when student scholars are going into their senior years for employment opportunities.

Match student scholar interests with potential internships.

Next Steps 10 volunteer Partners for the program. Sheila Patterson is the program coordinator. Student scholars contacted by partners no

later than mid June 2008 Partners must contact the parents as soon as

they are assigned and before the partnership is initiated.