UA Aerospace Engineering Student Selected as a NASA-MUST Scholar

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.  — Nichole Ramirez, a senior majoring in aerospace engineering from El Paso, Texas, was selected as one of almost 100 undergraduate students nationwide to participate in NASA’s Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology, or MUST, Scholarship Program for a second consecutive year.

The MUST program provides a scholarship of up to $10,000 toward tuition assistance as well as a required internship with any of the 10 NASA Centers around the country. Students are encouraged to attend a symposium providing valuable workshops and professional training. Support is also offered through the MUST Professional and Academic Support System, which is an online community that provides study guides and mentoring to help students remain above the 3.0 GPA minimum.

Dr. Michael Freeman, associate professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics, encouraged Ramirez to apply for the program during her sophomore year, and she was accepted for the first time in the fall of her junior year. Her experiences were so positive that she reapplied this year and was once again accepted.

Ramirez said the most valuable part of the program was through networking opportunities. Ramirez said she values the opportunities she has had to network with professionals in the education sector, and she said the program has helped her decide what she wants to do in terms of graduate school and her career.

“The program and my internships with NASA have provided motivation to continue to do well in school,” said Ramirez.

In addition to networking, the symposium offered workshops on topics ranging from proposals to presentations. Ramirez said she found the leadership skills workshop to be the most valuable. Ramirez said she hopes to later become an organizer of this, or a similar, program.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering classes. Today, UA’s fully accredited College of Engineering has more than 2,700 students and more than 100 faculty. In the last eight years, students in the College have been named USA Today All-USA College Academic Team members, Goldwater scholars, Hollings scholars and Portz scholars.