“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 EMU last fall. 

He is among an initial cohort of EMU 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 (EMU’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 EMU 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 EMU. “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 EMU, and that receiving the S-STEM Scholarship was “a nice surprise.”

For the Kansas-born Koontz, EMU 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 EMU 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 EMU 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 EMU 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 EMU 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.

EMU 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, EMU 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 EMU.”

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

The PhD student, in his fourth year of studies, is involved with one of the first projects at The Ohio State University to take advantage of the new platform matching scientists with donors.

To directly connect with the public, many scientists have turned to the social media, but using it effectively is a challenge. Showalter says he is learning as he goes, providing research updates and interesting scientific links on .

But in late October, Showalter had a little fun: “Need a nerdy Halloween costume?” he tweeted, attaching a link to bug-eyed masks. “Why not invasive insect?”

One of those masks caricatured the invasive emerald ash borer, a small winged creature with terrifying destructive powers. Since 2002, when the beetle accidentally arrived in North America via shipping crates from its native Asia, the species has killed an estimated tens of millions of ash trees in the Midwest and threatens to wipe out remaining forests across the continent.

“We stand to lose a multi-billion dollar resource and an essential piece of our forest ecosystem,” Showalter says in a video about his project.

Showalter doesn’t think eradication is a realistic idea for this insect. And despite the countless hours he’s spent researching how to stop its destruction, he still appreciatively calls his iridescent nemesis “a beautiful beetle.”

Instead, he and advisor Enrico Bonello are pinning their efforts on host resistance genetics for long term management of the insect. In Russia, China, and Korea, Asian species of ash tree have developed resistance to the beetle and die at much lower rates.

“The question is why the Asian species of ash tree can defend themselves and why the North American species can’t?” Showalter explains. “Trees produce a variety of chemicals in attempts to defend themselves. Through previous research, we have some idea of the chemistry that is happening, but ultimately the underlying genetics is what is going to be useful to help with breeding.”

Through the research proposed in the crowdfunding campaign, Showalter hopes to find the genetic markers of resistance to the beetle that will allow others to breed hybrid or transgenic North American ash trees. His research has already received partial funding from the , but Showalter says the additional $6,250 he seeks through his pitch on Experiment.com will allow him to make more progress on the genetic sequencing.

Already 40 backers have pledged more than $2,400. The deadline to meet the funding goal is Nov. 20. Like other crowdfunding sites, follows an “all-or-nothing” model: donors are not charged if the funding goal is not met.  All but eight percent of the donation value is tax-deductible.

While at EMU, Showalter was involved in research projects with professors and . As an undergraduate, he co-authored three research papers involving entomology and invasive species – interests which eventually coalesced into his profession.

Besides narrowing his interests and gaining skills that have helped him as a scientist, Showalter also has EMU to thank for one more benefit: he also met his wife, Kelly (Smucker) Showalter ’09, at EMU. Kelly is currently a second-year medical student at Ohio State.

“You can imagine time is at a premium for both of us,” Showalter said (he made a hasty exit from the lab, clipboard in hand, to talk to EMU news). “I have less of it now that I ever did, but it’s exciting to be at the forefront of this project.”

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