CSU’s LINK Program has for years provided minority students, largely from Greater Cleveland-area high schools, with internship and cooperative education opportunities. Its goals have been both to promote minority student participation in occupational fields that are in high demand as well as to serve as a recruitment and retention tool for promising students. The program has been successful largely because of strong support from corporate and organizational employers and LINK alumni as well as a mentoring program for students that has anchored the initiative.
LINK builds on the program’s long-standing strengths while sharpening its scope in such a way as to ensure its high performance and its sustainable effectiveness. The Program draws upon the resources and services available throughout Cleveland State University as well as the other functions of the Division of University Engagement, including the Office of Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement and the DIversity Institute.
Program Scope
Under the new program guidelines, the LINK Scholars Program serves up to 40 full-time, undergraduate students of color each year. Students are eligible to apply for the program during spring semester of their first year on campus. Although the program’s developmental structure is suited primarily for rising sophomores, students who transfer into the University with more than 30 credit hours are eligible for consideration. Students can receive up to $2,000 scholarship upon acceptance into the program. It is the program’s intention to renew the scholarship for each subsequent year that the student is enrolled at CSU and meets program requirements for a total of three years. Students from STEM majors are eligible to apply.
Please contact the Office of Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement at s.kennedy@csuohio.edu for further information and to apply.
LINK Applications open from February 6, 2024-March 18, 2024. Please click here to apply.
Please click here to apply to be a LINK mentor
LINK Program Details
LINK program featured in ConnectEd