EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The year of 2007 has been another very successful year for New Mexico One (NMONE) fellowship program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. We continued recruiting potential students into our nuclear engineering program at the University of New Mexico (UNM). This effort has included the dissemination of information on the fellowship program to various student organizations, through the freshman-engineering program within the School of Engineering and through our sister institution, the Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) in Albuquerque, NM. At CNM we have addressing potential students regularly each semester on the advantages and the excitement of pursuing a carrier in Nuclear Engineering. Historically, students transferred from CNM into our Nuclear Engineering program at UNM have done very well and graduate on schedule.
In 2005/2006 we established the alliance with CNM for the two + two program. In this program, students in the pre-engineering track complete the course requirements for the first two years at CNM and then transfer as juniors into our Nuclear Engineering Program at UNM, graduating with a BS in two years. Students who complete freshman requirements at CNM can transfer up to 26 applicable credits into our Nuclear Engineering program at UNM and be admitted as sophomores; they graduate within 3 years with a BS in Nuclear Engineering. When qualified undergraduate students were offered NMONE fellowships, most of them graduated within 3 years, after completing the freshman year courses. I have been going to CNM's pre-engineering program twice a semester to talk to potential students about nuclear engineering in general and our NE program at UNM in particular. Since the start of the NMONE fellowship program in October 2000, we have provided fellowships to thirty six (36) undergraduate students and seven (7) graduate students.
In May 2003, the first two undergraduate NMONE fellows graduated, in 2005 six more graduated, in 2006 another six fellows graduated, and in 2007 three fellows graduates with a BS in Nuclear Engineering. The average GPA of these fellows averaged GPA of 3.4 or higher. All NMONE graduates are either enrolled in graduate school, have taken a job, or expected to attend graduate school in the future.
Dr. Jeffery King, a NMONE graduate fellow, graduated in May 2006 with a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of New Mexico in May 2006. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Nuclear Engineering Program at the University of Missouri-Rolla. He started his faculty assignment in the fall 2006. Steven Hatton graduated with an MS in Nuclear Engineering in August 2007 and is currently working as a nuclear engineering analyst for a DETRA contractor in Albuquerque, NM. Jack Parker is finishing his PhD dissertation and expected to graduate in May 2008.
The NMONE undergraduate fellowship is $3000 per year, distributed in two equal installments, one towards the end of the fall semester and one towards the end of the spring semester. Each semester the fellows' academic record is reviewed and discussed with the NMONE fellowship program faculty advisor Professor M. S. El-Genk. Undergraduate fellows whose GPA reaches or exceeds 3.5 in any academic semester receive an additional $250 that semester.
The number of undergraduate students in nuclear engineering who are currently receiving NMONE fellowships totals ten (1): five female and five male, including two Hispanics, and eight Caucasians. In addition, in 2007 we partially funded four graduate students, one finished his MS degree in May 2007 and three are currently working on their PhD; one Asian, and two Caucasian. |
