Contributions of the NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program to the Atmospheric Sciences Pipeline

Since 2005, the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program has provided tuition support and paid summer internship opportunities at NOAA to exceptional students majoring in the atmospheric sciences. The purpose of the scholarship program is to train students in NOAA mission fields. Multiple methods were used to track the career trajectories of Hollings alumni, including mining LinkedIn data, conducting an impact analysis based on a professionally designed web-based evaluation survey, and a web-based alumni update system. At least one postgraduate record was recorded for more than 70% of atmospheric science alumni. Of the atmospheric science alumni tracked, approximately 75% continued on to graduate school in meteorology or atmospheric science. More than 40% of atmospheric science alumni had at least one professional record, with the most alumni working in private industry, followed by NOAA and academia.