A second endowed scholarship from the Lone Star College-Tomball Math Department will provide more financial opportunities for math students while also honoring former instructors.
The LSC-Tomball Mathematics Excellence Endowment in honor of retirees Patricia Funderberg, Dr. Bill Powell, and Dr. Dorothy Stowers will provide a yearly $1,000 scholarship for students in college-level math courses. The math department created the first $15,000 endowment for LSC-Tomball math students in 2004.
Funds for both endowments, as well as six additional $500 annual math scholarships earmarked specifically for students in developmental math courses, were raised by a math department project which began in 1998, said LSC-Tomball Dean of Instruction Pat Stone.
In an effort to help developmental and college-level math students learn how to best use graphing calculators the department developed and published a manual for students, said Stone. The royalties from the manual have provided more than enough funds for both endowments, as well as the additional annual math scholarships, she said.
Retiree Powell was one of the authors of the manual which the math department developed in 1998.
"As a department we came to the conclusion when the graphing calculator came out that it would be a great tool for our students so we thought if we developed a manual with exercises that could be done with the calculator in conjunction with what our students were learning in their math courses it would add greatly to their learning experience which it has done because they are able to check their thinking by using the technology available to them," said Powell.
"There never was any question among us after we began seeing how much the manual was making in royalties that the funds would go towards supporting the education of our students," said Powell.
The endowment honors Powell, who retired in 2007, along with former LSC-Tomball math professors Dr. Dorothy Stowers, who also retired in 2007, and Patricia Funderberg, who retired in 2002.
"The success of our students directly corresponds to the quality of our instructors," said Stone. "These instructors have given years of service to our college and we are very pleased to be able to honor them in this way, while also helping our students."
"I'm very honored - I didn't expect it," said Powell. "I'm thrilled that with the endowment there will be students who get an education when they likely would not have before. The naming of it after me and the others is just an added bonus."
Generally, to be considered for a scholarship, applicants must be admitted to Lone Star College-Tomball, be a high school graduate or have earned a GED, have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0 and be enrolled in at least 6 credit hours (although some scholarships require more hours).
For information on how to apply for this or any other scholarship available to LSC-Tomball students, visit the website at tomball.lonestar.edu or contact the Financial Aid Office at (281) 351-3310.