UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the first Millennium Scholar in the College of Earth and Mineral Science, Ana De La Fuente Duran embraced the opportunities of the program, which aims to help ambitious students onto the track toward advanced degrees in STEM fields. At Penn State, De La Fuente Duran pursued research into optoelectronics, founded a student organization for women in the sciences, and graduated with a degree in materials science in 2020.
She’s now enrolled in the doctoral program in materials science and engineering at Stanford and credits the Millennium Scholars Program (MPS) for opening doors for herself and for people like her.
“So many of my peers who went through MPS with me are brilliant, want to do incredible things, and are similarly underrepresented,” she said. “I think getting people like that to the spaces where they can change things — where they have a voice that can be heard — is super important for advancing science in a diverse and accessible way.”
The Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) will be raising money to support the Millennium Scholars Program on GivingTuesday, slated to begin at 6:55 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28, and lasting through 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29. Early fundraising is already underway in the University-wide effort.
Designed to set students up for success on their path to a doctorate, the program provides scholarships and support to students selected as Millennium Scholars. It relies on a cohort-based approach that encourages each student to assist one another in pursuit of their academic and career goals. Millennium Scholars are selected for the program after a rigorous application and interview process through which applicants highlight their commitment to diversity in STEM fields.
The college seeks to raise $20,000, which will help fund two Millennium Scholars in the 2022-23 academic year, doubling its goal from last year. Fundraising efforts will include interactive games on the college’s social media channels, including a bingo game between each of the college’s five departments. The winning department will be awarded a pizza party.
For the fourth year in a row, Tony Hutchinson, who graduated in 1990 in geography, is matching contributions 1:1 up to $10,000.
To learn more or to make an early contribution, visit the college’s GivingTuesday website.
The Millennium Scholars program aims to improve diversity and opportunity in STEM fields. It began in 2013 at Penn State, and EMS joined in 2016. The college has 20 active scholars and 10 graduates, the majority of whom are currently enrolled in doctoral programs at universities such as Stanford, Clemson and North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more information on the program, visit the Millennium Scholars homepage.
Hutchinson, who is senior vice president of industry and government relations at VantageScore Solutions, said he continues to support the program because he knows there are diverse minds with potential to excel in STEM in ways that benefit both those individuals and society. He said the United States has always benefited from this melting pot of ideas and increasing diversity will do the same for STEM fields.
“A lot of people who are really excellent candidates to be leaders in STEM fields aren’t able to go to college,” said Bridget Reheard, a sophomore Millennium Scholar who is double majoring in wildlife and fisheries science and geosciences. “The Millennium Scholars program enables those people to have those opportunities.”
Since 2016, the college’s GivingTuesday campaign has raised more than $70,000 for Millennium Scholars.
“I think people should support the Millennium Scholars Program for a lot of reasons, not least of which it enables excellent students to do incredible things,” said De La Fuente Duran.
With the record-breaking success of “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” which raised $2.2 billion from 2016 to 2022, philanthropy is helping to sustain the University’s mission of education, research and service to communities across the commonwealth and around the globe. Scholarships enable Penn State to open doors and welcome students from every background, support for transformative experiences allows students and faculty to fulfill their vast potential for leadership, and gifts toward discovery and excellence help serve and impact the world. To learn more about the impact of giving and the continuing need for support, visit raise.psu.edu.