In This Issue

Alumni Focus: Sylvia Acevedo

Sylvia Acevedo is the founder, President and CEO of CommuniCard LLC.  Her desire to bridge cultural language barriers led to the creation of the entirely new line of instructional products.  CommuniCards are a common sense approach to communicating with today's multicultural work force.

Sylvia has been an executive at top Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, Dell, Apple and Autodesk.  She began her career as an engineer working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, designing algorithms to optimize card loads for the Solar Polar space missions.  Before CommuniCard LLC, she was founder and VP of Sales and Marketing of REBA Technologies.

Her engineering degrees are from Stanford University (MS) and New Mexico State (BS) where she graduated with honors.  Now A Texan, Sylvia resides in Austin.

GEM Fellow David Mascarenas Featured in Los Alamos National Laboratory's Student Newsletter

The June 29, 2006 issue of Student News, Student Views put the spotlight on MS Engineering fellow David Mascarenas.  He recently defended his master's thesis "Development of an Impendence-based Wireless Sensor Node for Monitoring of Bolted Joint Preload".   By developing a special type of washer which indicates a bolt has loosened somewhere on a structure, structural damage may be avoided through repair of these loosened bolts ahead of time in case of a natural disaster.  Much of his research was done at LANL.  

Mascarenas will pursue his PhD at UC-San Diego this fall.

INRO 2007 Taking Student Applications August 15

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) offers a program for underrepresented minority students interested in allergy, immunology, and infectious disease research careers.  The Intramural NIAID Research Opportunities (INRO) program is February 4-8, 2007 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

The application deadline is October 15, 2006.

GEM@30: Record Attendance Reflects "Bright Future"

With more than 200 registrants and 330 gala celebrants in attendance, GEM@30 was clearly a  success .  Not only did the event meet targeted registration and gala ticket sale goals, but also received strong marks across all conference track evaluation surveys. 

"The financial and moral support shown to GEM by each of the 26 sponsors was unprecedented.  We were able to deliver a high quality event on the programmatic side as well as on the strictly fun, celebratory side," said executive director Michele Lezama.   "The participation of GEM members, fellows, partners, and potential fellows in Chicago was truly fitting of a 30th anniversary.  Everyone should be very proud of what we've collectively accomplished in our past and looking forward with excitement to even more from this great organization in the future."

Above: Co-hosts Randal Pinkett and Holly Robinson Peete trade witticisms during the gala.

Left to right: FFP Symposium holds students' rapt attention.  Sylvia Acevedo accepts her alumni award for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship and a pink Motorola Razr from Anthony "TJ" Jackson, VP of Alumni Programs.   Malena Perez hits a jazzy note with the gala audience.

More conference and gala photos  

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2007-2008 Fellowship Application Time is Here

GEM's online fellowship application officially opened for business on July 1.  Since that time, the office has noticed a slow up tick in the number of phone calls.  "Usually, it's an applicant that has forgotten their login password and it needs to be reset," laughed Forestine Jackson, Manager of Fellowships and Awards. 

With a deadline of November 1 it is imperative for applicants to work toward having a completed file in the GEM office by that date.  The most common documents to arrive late are letters of recommendation and transcripts.  "We can't consider a file complete if there are not three letters of recommendation, with at least two being from faculty," Jackson said.  "Not having every transcript from an applicant's undergraduate and graduate institutions attended also causes delays in processing.  It doesn't matter if the applicant only took a couple of classes at a school before transferring to his or her degree granting institution; reviewers want to see all post-secondary transcripts."  Incomplete files are not considered by the fellowship Selection Committee.

Operationally there is really no reason for materials to arrive past deadline.  "We accept unofficial transcripts as long as they include the most recent semester or quarter completed," said Jackson, "and the online application allows recommenders to submit a letter electronically through a link the applicant can give them.  If they do these things early enough - request transcripts, letters of recommendation, and have a mentor or advisor review the statement of purpose the student can put together a strong file on time.  The actual online application otherwise doesn't take a lot of time to finish and submit."

In addition to the application, GEM's web site also has general instructions  and FAQs  to assist those applying with the process.

If you know of an student or professional eligible for a GEM MS Engineering, PhD Engineering or PhD Science fellowship encourage him or her to consider graduate education and apply for a GEM fellowship this year.

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GRAD Lab Hits the Road to Beantown

GRAD Lab travels from Chicago to Boston!  The Massachusetts Consortium of STEM Programs is hosting the undergraduate encouragement program's second appearance of the year on September 30. The day-long event is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the campus of Boston University.  Other sponsoring members of the consortium include Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Worcester Polytechnic, and University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Students enrolled in area institutions from Amherst to Wellesley are encouraged to register.  Organizers are planning for up to 200 students to attend.  Ike Colbert, PhD, Dean fro Graduate Students at MIT and GEM's VP of Strategy & Policy-University, seized the opportunity to bring GRAD Lab East as soon as he learned GEM was formulating the new program for introduction at this year's annual conference. 

"The Greater Boston area, with its many colleges and universities,  is rich with an amazing diversity of students from around the nation.   Still, relatively few are given a coherent and persuasive picture of what graduate school is about, why they need to go, and how they can finance the venture.  While all students need this information, those from under-represented groups are especially in need of it.   Moreover, those who have interests and talents to excel in STEM fields cannot be left to their own devices to find this information and get this encouragement on their own.  In response, a number of universities came together as the Massachusetts Consortium of STEM Programs to develop an ideal forum to bring students together and excite them about their potential futures as leaders in these areas of critical national need.  That forum is GRAD Lab," Colbert said.

Interested in hosting a GRAD Lab in your city or region?  Contact Michele Lezama at mlezama@nd.edu .

Massachusetts Consortium of STEM Programs 

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GEM Calendar

'Tis the season for recruiting travel ... and GEM is steadily filling a calendar with appearances at national and regional conferences as well as campus career and graduate school fairs.

"We know there are certain conferences we have to have a presence at each year because they attract the students we want to apply for a fellowship," said Coordinator of Information Services Valerie Washington. 

This year's schedule will be even more strategic than past years.  "We know the disciplines where we need to reach out to those students to make them aware of the GEM fellowship.  And, as we add new employer members or as employer needs change we have to recruit potential fellows to meet those needs," Michele Lezama said.  "Also, since our strategic plan goal is significantly increasing the number of fellowship awards we have to be very intentional about the strategies and tactics we use to get in front of the influencers--faculty and deans--who will help us reach more students with our outreach and fellowship opportunities.  We recognize that increasing our pool's breadth and depth across engineering and science disciplines will attract even more employers to membership, whether they be labs, corporations, or universities.  Each has a stake in what we do and how we do it," Lezama said.

In addition to Washington and herself, Lezama is crafting a regional recruiting team to allow:

• better coverage of key events
• relationship building with partner member chapters
• flexibility to cost-effectively take advantage of regional STEM discussions

"We're in a great position to recruit a strong applicant pool this year and are excited to have so many opportunities to share a vital message with so many young people: graduate education is a national imperative and is an opportunity that GEM makes possible," said Lezama.

See the GEM calendar at www.gemfellowship.org

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