$1.1 million grant awarded to Mount Saint Joseph University through Choose Ohio First program

Mount Saint Joseph University has been awarded more than $1 million through Choose Ohio First, a program through the Ohio Department of Higher Education that aims to bolster STEM education in the state which will then lead to a growing Ohio workforce in those fields. 

The total amount of the grant will be received over five years. All of the funds are allocated toward student scholarships, which will be awarded to Computer Science students in the amount of up to $8,000 per year for four years.

According to an article on Mount Saint Joseph University’s website, Rebecca Allen, Ph.D., who teaches Computer Science, said, “This grant creates exciting opportunities for our Mount St. Joseph’s students. Through the grant, we can make an industry-aligned, cutting edge, computer science education affordable for our students.”

Allen went on to discuss the benefits that will be seen by the funding becoming available for student scholarships, including the college path becoming more accessible to a wider variety of students: “Many of our students are first generation students and without support, college may be out of reach. Another group of students we’ve seen helped be grant funding is rural students. Rural students are often overlooked in college recruitment, but they often benefit from scholarships provided by programs such as Choose First Ohio. We are also enthusiastic that the grant funding has encouraged many females to pursue computer science. Females are dramatically underrepresented in computer science—nationally, only 1 in 5 computer science graduates are women. Our program, in contrast, is over 50 percent women. The funding has given us that little extra piece of encouragement to guide women into technical careers,” she said.

For more information about Mount Saint Joseph University, visit the school’s website.