Brookdale Welcomes First Cohort of S-STEM Scholars

Brookdale Community College welcomed the inaugural cohort of S-STEM Scholars, an NSF-sponsored scholarship program designed to increase the number of students pursuing degrees in Math, Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics, and Engineering.

“I haven’t taken a math class in three years, and I’m feeling pretty out of shape,” said Samuel Swanson, a computer science major starting his freshman year at Brookdale. Swanson said he is looking forward to the additional academic support in math that participating in the S-STEM Scholars program provides.

“As a computer science major, math is a big portion of the classes you need to take,” said Dhrumil Patel. He said the extra support in math is one of the reasons he applied to the S-STEM Scholarship program.

In addition to extra support in math, students in the S-STEM Scholars program will have a chance to participate in a mentorship program. “The mentorship portion of the program is what I find interesting,” said Eddy Perez-Carrillo, a mechanical engineering major. Perez-Carrillo said he chose that major because he likes the hands-on aspect of engineering.

Daniel Gerber, Shane Martin, Taimur Niazi, and Nhu Nguyen are also participating in the program which is designed help the S-STEM majors excel upon completion of their degree at Brookdale, explore STEM career paths, and develop leadership skills.

To find out more about becoming an S-STEM Scholar at Brookdale, please visit brookdalecc.edu/s-stem.