NASA Space Grant successes with meteorology students at Plymouth State University

For over 10 years, the Meteorology Program at Plymouth State University (PSU) has been an affiliate of the New Hampshire Space Grant Consortium (NHSGC). As a member, PSU initially received a small amount of funding to provide limited undergraduate scholarships to students and partially fund stipends for students participating in summer research at the institution. As funding gradually increased, the Program was able to provide some support to graduate students, to help fund a student attending the NASA Academy program, and to start a summer research/intern relationship with the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, which has continued over the past six summers.

One of the major goals of the NASA Space Grant Program is to entice and keep students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines and then have them join the technical workforce and/or move onto graduate education in these areas. They also view the program as a way to build a research connection with the various NASA centers, which can benefit NASA. PSU has achieved significant success in these areas. This paper will discuss specific student tracking results and research outcomes, which have supported these NASA goals.