Cincinnati State, along with Wilmington College and the University of Toledo were awarded $1.7 million in grants from the Ohio Board of Regents to attract and retain some Ohio’s most sought after students.
The grant is one of $13.3 million in funds awarded to colleges statewide. The funding is the second phase of the $100 million STEMM initiative, geared toward students who plan to major in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. The $1.7 million award to Cincinnati State and its partners was the third-largest the regents announced in this round of funding.
STEMM is designed to attract students in high-demand, high-paying and growth job sectors who may not be able to attend a traditional four-year school for financial or other reasons.
The schools will use the funds for a program that will allow students to earn associate degrees at Cincinnati State in the target disciplines, then earn baccalaureate degrees either by taking Wilmington College courses at Cincinnati State or University of Toledo’s distance learning courses.
“The scholarships are intended to attract students who might not otherwise consider Cincinnati State as an option,’’ said Paul DeNu, dean of the Center for Innovative Technologies (CIT) at Cincinnati State.
Participating students will receive scholarships that amount to a free ride at Cincinnati State and tuition and fees that will be heavily subsidized at Wilmington or UT.
According to Cincinnati State, this is how the program will work:
• For each of the next five years, at least four students (five if funding permits) will be recruited for
each of the five selected CIT programs -- Business Information Systems, Computer Programming and Database Management, Software Engineering, Network Administration, and Computer Network Engineering Technology.
• Assuming they maintain their eligibility, each of these students – at least 20 a year, or between 100 and 125 over the life of the grant -- will receive $4,700 annually toward tuition and fees at Cincinnati State. The remainder of their “hard’’ costs (about $800 a year) will be financed by Cincinnati State through other revenue sources.
• Upon graduation from Cincinnati State, students will have two options. They will be able to complete their BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Business Analysis from Wilmington College on the Cincinnati State campus, or they can complete a BS in Information Technology from the University of Toledo in a totally online format.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Cincinnati State
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