The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) last week welcomed the first cohort of its Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP) Success Through Academic Research Scholarship (STARS) Scholars.
Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
June 17, 2024
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The Success Through Academic Research Scholarship (STARS) Scholars celebrate their first day with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM). From left: EM STARS Program Manager Latrincy Bates, Darian Moulden, Tylin Williams, Hannah Newmarker, Lillian Ngohuynh, Aniya Ziegler, Evan Watkins, Marly Pierre, Emmanuel Otto, Tyler Mends, Xana Lee and EM Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program Manager Genia McKinley.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) last week welcomed the first cohort of its Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP) Success Through Academic Research Scholarship (STARS) Scholars.
The 10 students were selected to participate in a 10-week summer internship at sites across the EM complex. The Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina, will host two scholars and the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office in Lexington, Kentucky, will host eight scholars. At the conclusion of the internship, the interns will join other EM MSIPP participants at the 10th Annual EM MSIPP Achievement Award Workshop in Augusta, Georgia, to present their summer research.
The STARS Scholars spent last week at DOE headquarters, where they met EM leadership and staff and received training to prepare them for their future careers at EM. To kick off the week, they spent Monday learning about EM’s mission, history and future. EM Diversity Chief Dameone Ferguson and EM Pathways Program Manager Maurice Thompson with EM’s Workforce Management Office coached the scholars on EM’s Everyone Matters initiative and discussed resources and opportunities available to them during the two-year program. They also learned about generational diversity, gaining insight into working with people from different generations.
Success Through Academic Research Scholarship (STARS) Scholars are pictured with Vitreous State Laboratory Director Ian Pegg at one of laboratory’s pilot melters at The Catholic University of America.
The STARS Scholars also met members of the EM headquarters staff, received training and learned about setting and working towards goals, among other things. At the end of the week they toured the Vitreous State Laboratory at The Catholic University of America with Ian Pegg, the laboratory’s director. The scholars viewed demonstrations of glass melting and pouring, and toured the laboratory’s pilot melters and off-gas treatment system. The day concluded with a tour of the laboratory’s analytical facilities.
The scholars began their assignments at their respective sites this week.
The STARS program is part of the larger EM MSIPP, which works to build a sustainable pipeline to employment with EM for students pursuing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degrees at minority serving institutions.
-Contributor: Lauren Zack