News Highlights

New student grants available for math, science, languages

Two new grant opportunities are available for U.S. college students -- $4,000 SMART grants for junior and senior math, science and language specialty majors, and smaller grants for freshmen and sophomores -- are being promoted by the Department of Education. President Richard Davenport and senior Sunnie McCalla took part in a June 21 Capitol press conference announcing the grants.

2006-06-22
By Margita Lohn, The Associated Press [distributed by The Associated Press, Minneapolis Bureau, 6/21/2006]

Minnesota State Mankato senior Sunnie McCalla (far right) was one of four students who answered questions from the media at a June 21 press conference in the Governor's Reception Room at the Capitol. At the conference, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings (left) and Gov. Tim Pawlenty (second from left) announced new federal grant initiatives for college students.

 

ST. PAUL - Justin Blahnik aims to wrap up his computer science degree at Winona State University in about a year and start looking for work related to human genome research.

He'll get some extra help this year from a new federal grant program designed to attract students to math, science and critical foreign languages. Blahnik qualifies for a SMART grant of as much as $4,000 - potentially doubling the federal aid he already receives.

The grants are part of President Bush's push to make Americans more competitive in the global economy. In the coming academic year, $790 million is earmarked for college students who study relevant subjects, show financial need and maintain good grades.

The subjects include computer science, engineering, life and physical sciences, technology, mathematics and languages such as Arabic, Chinese and Urdu, which is spoken in Pakistan.

"These fields of math and science are ever more critical, and they are largely the fields that will be in demand," U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said at a Capitol news conference with Gov. Tim Pawlenty. "Unfortunately we're not doing well enough today."

Officials hope the grants will attract students to fields they might not have considered before - and give high school students an additional incentive to study challenging subjects.

For Blahnik, who grew up in St. Charles in southeastern Minnesota, the aid will ease the way in a field he loves, even though the material can be difficult to master.

"I worry about debt. I already have two years of student loans. This grant would enable me to work less, to borrow less and to study more," he said.

Notices will start going out July 1 to juniors and seniors who qualify automatically for the SMART grant program, an acronym that stands for Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent.

First- and second-year college students can apply for smaller Academic Competitiveness grants (up to $750 for freshmen, $1,300 for sophomores) if they have passed two Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate high school courses or meet other requirements.

As many as 1.9 million U.S. students - including 93,000 in Minnesota - may qualify for the new grants, based on the number who already get federal Pell grants based on financial need. But the U.S. Department of Education doesn't track the number who are studying the qualifying subjects, said spokesman Chad Colby.

Fore more information about the grants, go to http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/ac-smart2.html

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