“I’ve always been conscious of how much money I’m spending,” he said. “I don’t want to have tons of debt I’ll have to pay back later, especially at high interest rates.”

And so for Vasquez, who works a part-time job at The Home Depot, financial aid from the Montgomery GI Bill, the Virginia Tuition Grant (VTAG), and a new National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM Scholarship has been a godsend in covering the full cost of his college education.

“Without the NSF S-STEM Scholarship, I would’ve struggled financially,” he said. “The scholarship really takes the pressure off my shoulders, because now I won’t have that debt looming over my head.”

Born and raised in Harrisonburg, Vasquez graduated from high school in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and attended Blue Ridge Community College while enlisting in the military. After completing recruit training, taking time to reassess his academic goals, and changing majors from business to computer science, he transferred to 91����Ƶ last fall. 

He is among an initial cohort of 91����Ƶ students receiving the NSF S-STEM Scholarship, which provides:

• Up to $15,000 in unmet financial need annually for the length of the degree
• A paid one-week Bridge to College program
• A STEM mentorship program
• An eight-week paid internship
• Free conference attendance
• Forest restoration opportunities in Park Woods (91����Ƶ’s on-campus woodland)

The scholarship is open to high-achieving, income-eligible students who are majoring in Biochemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Math, or Psychology (research/STEM track).

Applications for the S-STEM Scholarship
are due by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026.

For more information, visit .

‘A welcoming community’

Forming friendships at a new school can have its challenges.

Along with other initiatives provided by the scholarship, a Bridge to College program helps new 91����Ƶ students adjust to life on campus by moving them in a week early, introducing them to STEM faculty and staff members, and engaging them in activities to build camaraderie and form connections with one another. Students participating in the weeklong program receive a generous stipend for their time.

Ani Koontz, a first-year biology and secondary education double major from Newton, Kansas, is a recipient of the S-STEM Scholarship. She recalled traveling to Shenandoah National Park with students and faculty the week before classes, surveying salamanders and hiking trails, before bicycling around Downtown Harrisonburg on a tour led by city officials.

“That first week showed me how friendly and approachable my professors are,” she said. “They’ve done a great job creating a welcoming community.”

Another S-STEM Scholarship recipient, Mara Carlson, is a first-year psychology major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “Many of us have become close friends,” she said. “I’ll see the other scholarship recipients around campus and we’ll say hello to each other.”

Through the scholarship, each student is paired with an academic advisor specific to their major, who can answer questions and help guide them forward. Carlson said she meets with Kathryn Howard-Ligas, assistant professor of psychology at 91����Ƶ. “We discussed a four-year plan, and I was really grateful for that,” she said. Part of that plan includes gaining invaluable experience through internships and conferences, additional perks of the S-STEM Scholarship.

Carlson said she already knew she wanted to attend 91����Ƶ, and that receiving the S-STEM Scholarship was “a nice surprise.”

For the Kansas-born Koontz, 91����Ƶ had always been on her radar, but she also considered attending in-state schools that normally would’ve been cheaper. When she learned she had been offered the S-STEM Scholarship and that it would lower her college costs to “a very affordable amount,” her choice to attend 91����Ƶ became an easy one.

“It’s 100% the reason I came,” she said. “When I got that, it meant I could completely afford to go here, and it honestly made 91����Ƶ more affordable than any other college in my area. It’s my joy to share how grateful I am because this is truly just an amazing thing that 91����Ƶ has.”

The grant, awarded through the NSF’s , will fund up to $15,000 annually for each scholarship recipient throughout the length of their degree. Overall, the S-STEM Scholarship will fund a quality undergraduate education for 23 91����Ƶ students among three cohorts over the next six years, beginning with first-year students entering the Fall 2025 semester.

The scholarship is open to academically talented students with financial need who are majoring in the following fields: Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Math, and Psychology (research/STEM track).

Applicants for the S-STEM Scholarship must submit their application and reference forms by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. For more information about the program and how to apply, visit: emu.edu/stem/scholarship

In addition to scholarships, the program offers students a paid one-week Bridge to College experience, where they can meet professors, learn material from their discipline, acquire study skills, and become better prepared for college.

91����Ƶ Biology Professor Dr. Kristopher Schmidt said that some first-year students can struggle to adjust to life on campus, and that the grant aims to ease that adjustment.

“We want to create a sense of belonging,” said Schmidt, who is principal investigator for the grant program.

The program also provides funding for embedded tutoring services and paid tutoring opportunities for students, specialized advising, and guidance from professional STEM mentors.

“This would be a person outside the university in their field of interest who can encourage them, help them, and connect with them along their four-year program,” Schmidt said about the mentors. 

The S-STEM Scholarship program offers innovative opportunities for place-based learning and funding for an eight-week paid internship. Students can use grant-funded resources to conduct research on forest restoration in the Park Woods space, which serves as a key learning lab for STEM students.

This latest grant builds on the success of a similar STEM grant that wrapped up in 2023.

By leveraging grants like these, 91����Ƶ lives into its mission and vision, outlined in its 2023-28 strategic plan Pathways of Promise of opening new pathways of access and achievement, and can help the NSF achieve its goal of diversifying the STEM workforce.

“We were thrilled to receive this,” Schmidt said. “We’re excited and grateful the NSF has chosen to invest in our students at 91����Ƶ.”

Faculty members Kristopher Schmidt, Jim Yoder, Daniel Showalter, Stefano Colafranceschi and Dean Tara Kishbaugh wrote the S-STEM grant proposal.

A poster describing the project – a solar-powered greenhouse – also won second place in the first- and second-year Engineering Design Team Division at a of the , held in Georgia at Mercer University from March 30 to April 1, 2014.

Three members of 91����Ƶ’s chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World () (the first chapter in Virginia) traveled to the conference along with faculty advisor , assistant professor of .

“Our poster was unique because it described something tangible that we had built,” says ESW club president Jordan Leaman. “Many of the other projects were research-based and not very practical.”

Earlier this winter, the seed of the greenhouse project germinated in a brainstorming session between first-year roommates Leaman and major Jonathan Nisly. Building a greenhouse for was Nisly’s idea. Funding for the project came from Earthkeepers.

“A lot of people build these structures with 20-foot lengths of PVC pipe, adding as many hoops as you want for the length of the greenhouse,” says Leaman.

Two weeks prior to the conference, six ESW club members assembled the 12 x 50-foot skeleton of the greenhouse, sealing it with a 6 mil plastic sheet the following week. The interior was 20 degrees warmer than outside temperatures the next day.

To complete the project, the club will apply for a grant from Engineers for a Sustainable World for fans and supplemental solar heat to further extend the growing season through the winter months.

The aerodynamic shape of the curved tunnel helps with wind resistance. Without fittings on the pipes, the structure can bend and flex with high winds. (The students admit they called back to campus to confirm the greenhouse withstood the 50-mph gusts that blew through Harrisonburg while they were at the conference.)

That weekend, the students from 91����Ƶ had the opportunity to mix with young engineers from other schools who presented a range of projects, and learned about humanitarian engineering projects sponsored by Mercer University.

“The conference was kind of a whirlwind of new ideas and information being thrown at us,” says Nisly.

A presentation on prosthetics design and testing – part of a Mercer project working with amputees in Vietnam – gave the students insights into practical applications of engineering principles, says Tian.

“Engineers working to promote environmental, economic and social sustainability is very important to me,” she says. One of Tian’s first initiatives after joining 91����Ƶ’s and faculty in the fall of 2013 was to start an ESW chapter. She is pleased that the club’s first project received regional recognition.

In the poster’s conclusion, the ESW students describe the greenhouse as “a valuable asset to the university, as well as an opportunity for the ESW club to put our skills to work. It is a project that can be used as a model for other academic institutions, and we hope its impact will reach beyond our campus.”

Pre-engineering students at 91����Ƶ have successfully moved from a strong foundation in math, physics and engineering classes to excel in specialized engineering schools at universities such as Penn State, Virginia Tech, and the University of Virginia, says Tian.

“Deirdre brings a wealth of experience as an outstanding teacher, scholar, and department chair,” said in an April 5 email announcing the appointment to the campus community. “She knows 91����Ƶ well, having served on the faculty since 1998. She has the skills and dispositions necessary for leading the undergraduate programs into their next stage of growth and development.”

Since joining the 91����Ƶ faculty, Smeltzer has held increasingly responsible positions, including chair of the , 2005-2012. During 2012-13, Smeltzer had dual roles as a faculty member and director of 91����Ƶ’s extensive . Smeltzer has been a member of 91����Ƶ’s strategic planning council, faculty senate and undergraduate council executive committee.

Prior to coming to 91����Ƶ, she served for four years on the faculty of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. She has taught courses on more than two dozen topics in her field and is author or co-author of a number of peer-reviewed articles and a textbook.

“Deirdre is known by her colleagues for her excellent problem-solving and strategic-thinking skills, and for her commitment to high academic standards,” said Kniss. “I am eagerly looking forward to working with her in the years ahead as we move into an exciting period of growth and development for undergraduate programs at 91����Ƶ.”

Smeltzer majored in mathematics and minored in at 91����Ƶ, graduating in 1987. She earned her MS and PhD in mathematics at the University of Virginia.

Recalling her undergraduate years at 91����Ƶ, Smeltzer credits two professors, Millard Showalter in Calculus II and Del Snyder in Discrete Math, for nurturing her interest in higher-level mathematics. “Millard made class interesting, and I found myself doing his homework first,” she recalled in an interview with the 91����Ƶ alumni magazine. “In Discrete Math, I discovered that I really loved the abstract, logical thinking required – much more than the hands-on labs of chemistry, which was another major that I was considering.”

As a scholar, Smeltzer has published articles on topics such as “Edge bounds in non-hamiltonian k-connected graphs” and “Exploring Loci in Geometry” (both with her 91����Ƶ colleague , PhD) and has given presentations on “applications of circular and spherical inversions,” among other topics. She, Byer and a third mathematician, Felix Lazebnik, are authors of a textbook on Euclidean geometry, published by the Mathematical Association of America in 2010. A second book is in the works.

Fulfilling commitments made before her new appointment, Smeltzer will be co-leading an in the fall of 2013. She did a sabbatical in China in 2006, where she taught and wrote.

Smeltzer and husband Sherwyn, a 1986 graduate in accounting, are the parents of Meg, a senior at 91����Ƶ, and Claire, enrolled at Eastern Mennonite High School.