The Agilent Technologies Foundation has announced a bold new program of scholarships, mentoring, a lecture series and field trips for Sonoma State University students as a mark of its continued support of the University's computer engineering science programs.
Agilent has partnered with SSU to offer ten $3,000 scholarships to train and educate undergraduate students majoring in the field of engineering science.
Seven of the scholarships have been awarded to students this week. Many of them graduated from local high schools.
They were awarded in recognition of merit through a process which included interviews, essays and consideration of the applicants' scholastic scores. The remaining three are expected to be awarded mid-year.
"The Agilent scholarships are an important part of a collaborative effort with SSU to attract top students to the new Bachelor of Science degree program in engineering science - and to help them succeed," says Jeff Weber, public affairs manager for Agilent Technologies in Sonoma County. "This first set of scholarship recipients is a very impressive group of students."
The scholarship winners currently attending SSU and the high schools from which they graduated are:
Nicholas Bartlett -- Maria Carrillo
Curtis Caton -- Clovis West
Allisha Farris -- Eastside College Prep
Brooks Hanley --Technology High School
Matthew Peterson -- Rancho Cotate
Brian Tietz -- Rancho Cotate
Daniel Woloz -- Mira Costa
In addition to receiving scholarships, the recipients will be advised by two mentors - one from the SSU Department of Engineering Sciences faculty and one from Agilent Technologies. The mentors will assist students in their undergraduate careers, with the SSU faculty members providing guidance for the student's academic career and the Agilent advisors helping forge the student's future engineering career.
"The Agilent-SSU partnership constructs yet another part of the fundamental concept of public-private partnerships as an effective means of responding to the educational needs of our local community by supporting the University's programs and students," says Saeid Rahmi, Dean of the School of Science and
Technology.
The Agilent scholarships represent just one of the company's future plans for contributions to the SSU campus. An Agilent-sponsored lecture series is in the planning stages, geared at exposing students and the public alike to topics and careers in engineering. Field trips to the Santa Rosa campus of Agilent are also being scheduled for engineering students in the spring 2006 semester.
Other contributions by Agilent to the SSU campus include future engineering classes to be taught by Agilent employees, and equipment donations to the School of Science and Technology.
Agilent previously donated more than $1 million in new and used photonics and test and measurement equipment for use in the Agilent Technologies Communications Laboratory at SSU.
For more information, contact Jeff Weber, Public Affairs Manager for Agilent Technologies in Sonoma County, (707) 577-2845, Dr. Jagan Agrawal, Chair of the SSU Engineering Science department, (707) 664- 4438, or Jean Wasp, SSU Media Relations Coordinator, at (707) 664-2057.
