Scholarships Offered Through Choose Ohio First Program

Students attending Ashland University in the fall of 2010 will be eligible to receive Choose Ohio First scholarships thanks to a collaborative program with three other educational institutions in the region.

The Choose Ohio First program is a scholarship program funded by the state of Ohio to encourage talented Ohio residents to study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs at Ohio colleges and universities. The first scholarships to Ashland University were awarded this fall.

Ashland University is the lead university in the northeast initiative, and will partner with The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute, North Central State College and Lakeland Community College to attract and graduate more than 50 students in the STEM fields of clinical, biomedical and environmental research and agricultural biosciences over a five-year period.

“Statewide employment prospects remain high in these STEM areas,” said Dawn R. Weber, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. "Science programs at Ashland University are among the best in the nation and provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to work one-on-one with faculty members in their research laboratories, often leading to presentations at professional conferences.”

Dr. Steven Fenster, assistant professor of biology/toxicology at Ashland University and director of the Choose Ohio First Program at Ashland, said the program provides career pathways in which high school students can get STEM training and more by attending Ashland University or attending two-year colleges and getting an associate’s degree and then transferring to Ashland University to complete their bachelor’s degrees.

“Many of the relationships between these schools and the industry partners for the grant program – WIL Research in Ashland, OARDC in Wooster and Clinical Research Management Inc. in Medina – were born out of the seven-county Bioscience Consortium of Northeastern Ohio.
Fenster said the industry partners will play a major role in the program because they have committed to providing internships to the scholarship students.

The Choose Ohio First funding will provide $376,703 in scholarship money for high achieving students from the state of Ohio attending Ashland University, and a total of $508,195 for the four schools in this partnership.

Impactful features of the program include readying an educated workforce to meet a fast-growing bioscience industry and a hands-on, in depth experience in an array of bioscience laboratory techniques for students. The firm commitment from local businesses for cooperative education and internship opportunities will allow for students to enter into this important pathway at multiple points and remain in the Northeastern Ohio area.

For more information on the Choose Ohio First scholarship program, or for information on other scholarship, grant and financial aid programs available at Ashland University, call the financial aid office at 1-800-882-1548 ext. 5002 or visit the website at www.ashland.edu/finaid/.

For more information about this program or to read the full project description, please visit the Ohio Board of Regent's Choose Ohio First web-site -- http://universitysystem.ohio.gov/chooseohio1st/