Tracy Cummings, a graduate student in the Experimental Education Research and Training program, received the NASA Science Engineering Mathematics Aerospace Academy Award in Washington, D.C., last September. The Science Engineering Mathematics Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) is a national program with 22 sites in 17 states. Cummings worked with a team that was awarded a grant to build the 23rd site at Tennessee State University, the only SEMAA site in Tennessee. The TSU SEMAA Program is receiving the 2008 Innovations in American Government Award from the Congressional Black Caucus, sponsored by the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation.
In addition, Cummings is being awarded the NASA SEMAA Leadership Award in recognition of her exemplary work supporting the project’s efforts. The program has provided 6,000 K-12 students with free programs designed to increase interest and participation in science, technology, engineering and math.
Erin Rodriguez won a National Research Service Award fellowship for her project “Communication, Coping and Executive Function in Children with Cancer,” which also was selected for funding by the National Cancer Institute. Professor Bruce Compas is her mentor on this grant.