Stars Alliance Student Leadership Corps



Starting in the summer of 2008, UTK is joining the Stars Alliance Program.  This is an alliance with 20 schools, mostly in the Southeast,  that aims at students in computing (Computer Science, Information Technology, etc)  with the goals of  broadening participation in computing, leadership, mentoring,  retention, and outreach.  This is open to students in computing, both  undergraduates and graduate students.

There are two primary aspects of this in relation to UTK students.
1) The Stars Celebration 2008 at Auburn, Alabama, August 10-13.  There will be poster sessions, leadership workshops, panels, and other activities.  Stars Celebration 2008  describes the celebration.  I hope to take about 3 students to this conference.  Expenses, accomodation, travel, etc, will be paid.

2) For the 2008-2009 academic  year, there will be funds to support up to 10 students for up to $500 per semester.  The students who do this may be able to get some credit hours in addition to the stipend, and the students will participate with actities that help promote retention, outreach to pre-college students (visiting high schools, etc, to attract potential students towards computing at UTK), mentoring of current students, and the like.  The overall goal is to bring more people into computing at UTK,  to increase retention rates for those in computing, to monitor and mentor  students in computing, and to encourage undergraduates to continue on to graduate school and research. 

For a full view of the Stars Alliance program , visit Stars Alliance

david straight:  straight@utk.edu          www.cs.utk.edu/~straight            974-5067

www.starsalliance.org
www.starsalliance.org/starscelebration2008/index.htm