2008 Ohio State University Finalists

In 2008, two programs were selected as Ohio State’s nominees for the regional Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award and the C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award:

• Ohio State’s Comprehensive Approach to Urban Revitalization—2008 North Central Region Winner (opens in new window)
• The Ohio State University and Honda: Expanding, Excelling, and Enriching the Partnership

2008 Ohio State Finalist

The Ohio State University and Honda: Expanding, Excelling, and Enriching the Partnership

Ohio State Partner: College of Engineering
Community Partner: Honda of America Manufacturing
Links: Honda Partnership Program

The Honda/OSU Partnership is a unique collaboration between university and industry, with diverse activities spanning education, research, and public service for a variety of audiences. In 2006, the partnership received national acclaim by being ranked among the nation’s top five industry-university partnerships by Business Facilities Magazine, an award-winning trade publication for economic development markets. To further its mission toward community outreach, the Honda-OSU Partnership established an unparalleled endowment in 2006 to focus exclusively on the advancement of outreach, diversity, and engagement for the community. Through this and other endowments that make up the partnership, students of all ages are targeted with activities including an on-campus 1-week residence program aimed at increasing the awareness of high school students in engineering; summer intern programs for students from historically black universities and a unique mentoring program, jointly conducted by Ohio State faculty, students, and Honda associates, aimed at local public schools to enhance engineering awareness in underrepresented groups, with emphasis in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields for middle school and high school students. Programs reaching out to industry include continuing education for engineers in the workplace, with development efforts in practice-oriented areas of the engineering disciplines, and investment in facilities for state-of-the-art distance learning delivery.

Photo: 2008 Math Medal Award Winners

In addition to these programs, the Honda-OSU Partnership has received recognition for its successful Math Medal program and accompanying scholarship program. The goal of the Math Medal program is to recognize outstanding math scholarship at high schools in the 15-county area around OSU and Honda of America Manufacturing. With the accompanying scholarship program offered exclusively to the pool of Math Medal recipients, the intent is to provide incentive for students interested in engineering careers to pursue their higher education goals at the College of Engineering. Selection of the Math Medal recipients lies solely with the student’s school, faculty, and/or administration. Each high school is urged to establish objective criteria for selecting that school’s outstanding math student, based on academic performance indicators at the end of the student’s junior year, including (but not limited to) standardized mathematics test scores (SAT, ACT, etc.), grade point average, class ranking, performance in mathematics or science competitions, and so forth. The Math Medal program began in 2004, with the Class of 2005, when 52 high schools participated. That number has grown significantly over the 4 years of the program, due in part to an awareness program in the spring of 2005 wherein the Partnership Director teamed with a Honda Associate to travel more than 1,000 miles around central Ohio to visit more than 100 high school superintendents and administrators. The level of participation peaked in 2007 with student recipients from more than 125 high schools. The special pewter Math Medal comes with a $200 savings bond for each recipient, and a display plaque for each high school boasts the names of that school’s recipients over the years. The impact of the Math Medal and Scholarship programs is quite apparent, not only in terms of recognizing excellence in mathematics among Ohio’s youth, but also in terms of increasing the overall awareness of the field of engineering, and motivating students in STEM-related fields.

return to 2008 O&E Awards page

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