Certificate in STS: Students

Historically, students earning the Certificate in STS have earned majors across the university, about 30% engineering, 20% government and politics, 10% math, physics or astronomy, 10% life sciences, and additional students from other areas. Students reflect the ethnic diversity of the campus.

Students make their mark on the program in a few ways, significantly in their choice of topic for the Capstone paper. Recently, students have written about:

• fuel cells for off-the-grid electricity generation
• funding for theoretical and observation-based research in astrophysics
• recent environmental law and policy
• the contribution of derivatives to the Asian financial crisis

Students are invited to become mentors to younger STS students, including those in the College Park Scholars STS program. There are opportunities to teach the freshmen, to lead students in important service for STEM tutoring, and to be team leaders on field trips and during community-building activities. STS Certificate students who are advanced undergraduates also may serve as judges of competitions about academic coursework, such as posters, oral presentations and term papers.