From FIU President Rosenberg’s Sunday Briefing newsletter…
It was just a quick 24 hour visit to Arizona State University with Honors College Dean J.C. Espinosa. There we were in Tempe having dinner with ASU President Michael Crow on Wednesday, March 6, at an outside table at the trendy Cornish Pasty Company on S. Mill Avenue when I spot a posse of students walking with purpose down the street. To my surprise, one of the students was wearing an FIU Engineering t-shirt!
Turns out that all five were in Phoenix to give presentations and participate in the 2019 Waste Management Conference representing our Applied Research Center’s Department of Energy (DOE)-FIU Science and Technology Workforce Development Program.
Shown in the photo above (from left to right) are Dean Espinosa; Silvia Garcia, who is pursuing her bachelor’s in biological sciences with a minor in chemistry; Tristan Simoes-Ponce, who is pursuing a master’s in mechanical engineering; Katherine Delarosa, who is studying for a bachelor’s in environmental engineering; Alexis Suarez, who is on her way to getting a bachelor’s in environmental engineering; and Ximena Lugo, who will graduate in Spring 2019 with a bachelor’s in environmental engineering.
President Crow was quick to seize on the moment and went into his well-practiced student recruitment mode, explaining the many advantages of an ASU master’s degree in sustainability.
These students are part of a larger effort by ARC to invest resources to train and mentor FIU science and engineering students—appointed through a competitive selection process—to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge to possibly compete for careers at the DOE via the Pathways Program, and/or at the DOE National Labs, or across the wide spectrum of the DOE portfolio of initiatives and programs.
Students also have the opportunity to conduct research during summer months at DOE sites and laboratories, alongside scientists, researchers and/or national policy analysts/makers.