Two Stevens women engineering students are designated Clare Boothe Luce Scholars

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Through the generous support of the Clare Boothe Luce Program, two undergraduate women at Stevens Institute of Technology have achieved an esteemed designation as Clare Boothe Luce Scholars. These merit-based scholarships are awarded through a competitive selection process to outstanding engineering majors interested in academic careers. Both students hail from New Jersey.

“These engineering students show remarkable promise as students and as engineering leaders of the future,” said the Dean of Stevens’ Schaefer School of Engineering Dr. George P. Korfiatis. “Kudos to them for their deserved recognition as Luce Scholars.”

“These scholarships will help these accomplished young women complete their last two years of undergraduate studies and encourage their participation in research and graduate school,” said Dr. Susan Staffin Metz, Executive Director of Stevens’ Lore-El Center for Women in Engineering and Science, who sat on the selection committee. “Stevens is most interested in new scholarships for engineering students, since engineering continues to be the field with the greatest under-representation of women.”

The selection process of the Clare Boothe Luce Scholars was coordinated by the Lore-El Center staff working in conjunction with a faculty committee. Many factors are taken into account to identify Clare Boothe Luce Scholars, including the student’s level of academic and professional performance and participation.

One of the two Luce Scholars is Tracey Ryan, a resident of Westfield, N.J. She has a 3.66 average, is going into her junior year and is studying biomedical engineering. She is on her way to receiving both a Bachelor of Engineering degree and a master's degree in Engineering Management from Stevens in four years – a highly notable accomplishment. Tracey wants to pursue a doctorate and get involved in biomedical engineering research. She has been involved in numerous Stevens activities and participates in pre-college programs at the Lore-El Center.

She is involved in several community service activities through her sorority, which she joined because of the community and network of women which is important to her. She also teaches reading to a six-year-olds through her church. Yoga is her favorite physical activity.

Jennifer Kurucz resides in Port Reading, N.J. She has a 3.64 average and is majoring in Computer Engineering. Jennifer is in the Stevens Co-operative Education Program and is going into her fourth year (of five) at Stevens. She has worked for Colgate Palmolive on three consecutive co-op assignments, demonstrating how much the company values her talents. Jennifer was interested in joining a sorority, but when the one she chose turned her down, she decided to devote all of her extra time to Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Although she is not a Latina, she finds the warmth, community, and diversity of this organization enormously satisfying and has been an active student volunteer for their Eastern and National Conferences.

Jennifer also participates in E-week to make sure younger kids learn about engineering and science. At Stevens, Jennifer has been a mentor for the Stevens Technical Enrichment Program (STEP) and a tutor for the Academic Support Center.

Summer Research Opportunity for Clare Boothe Luce Scholars

All Clare Boothe Luce scholarship recipients will be eligible for the Technogenesis® Summer Scholars Program at Stevens in the summer following their junior year.

The program provides a stipend of $3,500 and on-campus housing to undergraduate students who wish to participate in Technogenesis projects during the summer months. In this program, students engage in innovative design and research projects for a period of no less than ten weeks. That work must be conducted on campus under the supervision of a Stevens faculty member or a member of the research/scientific staff. Scholars will have the opportunity to continue to work on their projects during the following school year if they so desire.

Lore-El Center Residence for Clare Boothe Luce Scholars

The Clare Boothe Luce Scholars will have the opportunity to live in the Lore-El Center building during their junior or senior year. The Lore-El Center offers an all-female residential program for undergraduate women through a selective application process. The facility provides residential space for ten undergraduate female students in double and single rooms, a student lounge, conference room, a kitchen, and offices for three full-time staff members. The Lore-El Center is self-governing, in that no resident assistant monitors students’ behavior. Residents are required to work at the Center for two hours per week.

About Clare Boothe Luce

Anne Clare Boothe was born in New York City, March 10, 1903. As a young woman, she was very active in the Women’s Suffrage movement.

In 1930 she became associate editor for Vanity Fair, resigning from that position in 1934 to pursue a career as a playwright. On November 23, 1935 she married Henry R. “Harry” Luce, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time, Inc. Her most successful play, The Women, opened on Broadway on December 26, 1936. By 1942 she was fully involved in wartime politics and ran for and was elected as a representative to Congress for Connecticut's Fourth District.

Luce was named ambassador to Italy in 1953, becoming the first American woman to represent her country to a major world power. Years later she served as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

She died October 9, 1987, leaving the majority of her estate to The Henry Luce Foundation. The Program is the single largest private source of funding for women in science and engineering. Since its inception (through 2003) grants totaling $92.1 million have been made to 132 different colleges and universities, and one high school. These awards have benefited more than thirteen hundred women with undergraduate scholarships (825), graduate fellowships (390), or professorships (137).

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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