On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, students from the Washkewicz College of Engineering presented 51 research posters in the CSU Student Center Atrium. These students are recipients of the Choose Ohio First scholarship, an initiative of the Ohio Department of Higher Education which provides funding to STEM majors in more than 70 colleges and universities throughout Ohio. 

Cleveland State University students have received funding for scholarships since the inception of the program in 2008 and currently 275 students are receiving the scholarship - sixty-four percent of these students are in the College of Engineering. Students in the College of Arts and Science and the College of Health also receive the Choose Ohio First scholarship at Cleveland State. 

The Poster Symposium held on April 1, 2025, allowed the students to display their research or their work experience. Freshmen and sophomores formed groups in October 2024 and conducted research from October 2024 through March 2025 under a faculty mentor while seniors presented either their research or a real-life work experience, they had. The presentations were judged either by a Choose Ohio First junior student or a faculty member at Cleveland State. This also allowed Choose Ohio First scholarship students to have the experience of judging a project of their peers. Most of the students went on to the Regional Choose Ohio First symposium which this year took place at Kent State University on Sunday, April 13, 2025. Posters from Cleveland State students covered a wide variety of topics such as work experiences at various companies and both expository and original research.

One of the main goals of the Choose Ohio First program at Cleveland State is to create a cohort of students who will learn and work together. This symposium allowed for students from all three colleges to learn how to conduct research under a faculty member; convey the research in the form of a poster; and discuss the poster in front of a judge and other people. For the students presenting work experience posters, this allowed them to articulate what they did at their jobs. 

Want to learn more about the Choose Ohio First program at CSU? Visit csuohio.edu/choose-ohio for details on scholarships, research opportunities and student success stories. Have questions? Reach out to Dr. Nolan Holland, Program Director and Chair, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at n.holland1@csuohio.edu / 216-687-2572, or Sandra Vasenda, Program Coordinator, at s.vasenda@csuohio.edu / 216-875-9754.