Dear GCSP Supporters,

We are gearing up to recruit UMBC's third cohort of Grand Challenge Scholars. Twenty-three students from majors across the university have participated  in the first two cohorts, and the first four GC Scholars graduated in May 2017.  

We hope to grow the size of the program this year, and bring greater awareness to campus of this opportunity for our students.  To help make that happen, this year we are asking faculty and staff to nominate students they believe would be a good fit for the GCSP.  Any student who is interested in solving real-world problems, who has an interest in social and global issues, who has an entrepreneurial spirit, or who has a scholarly sense of curiosity about broad challenges facing society will benefit from (and contribute to) the Grand Challenge Scholars program.  Students *do not* need to be engineering majors -- in fact, we especially encourage students from non-engineering backgrounds to apply, increasing the diversity and interdisciplinarity of our Grand Challenge community.

You may nominate students by filling out the very short form here:

Students should ideally apply at the end of their sophomore year, and should have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, but students who are earlier or later in their academic careers, or have a slightly lower GPA, are also encouraged to apply, and we will consider their circumstances on a case-by-case basis.  The deadline for student applications is April 1, and we will accept nominations at any time before then, but your nominations will be most useful if we have received them by the end of February so that we can reach out to the students and give them time to prepare their application materials.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions about the program or the nomination process (mariedj@umbc.edu or gcsp@umbc.edu).

Regards,

Marie desJardins