The SMART scholarship program is a Department of Defense workforce development program created to address the growing gap between America and the rest of the world in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. SMART facilitates this goal by recruiting and retaining some of the best and brightest STEM candidates in the nation.

The scholarship provides an opportunity for students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in the STEM disciplines to receive a full scholarship and be gainfully employed upon degree completion.

About 3% of the 239 scholarships given in 2016 were awarded to Industrial and Systems engineers.

Once making it through the first round of applicants, in the second round people are contacted by different facilities that are part of this program. The program places you in a facility of their choosing which is where students complete their summer internship and will work after graduating. Rachel was awarded the scholarship and placed with the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Virginia, where she will complete an internship with them this summer, and then begin working full time there upon graduating.