TCNJ Student, Alumna Garner Prestigious UPE Scholarships

Two computer science students from The College of New Jersey were among 19 worldwide who have received prestigious Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) international scholarships this year. Eric Thul, a senior, was one of nine recipients of the $1,000 UPE undergraduate award. Megan Thurber, a 2005 graduate, was one of only four recipients of the $1,000 graduate award.

Each year, the executive council of UPE, an international honor society for computing and information disciplines, awards a small number of scholarships to students selected from a large pool of candidates. All applicants are required to complete a comprehensive application comprised of college-level transcripts, a recommendation from their UPE adviser, and testimony of their contributions to their respective UPE chapters and related activities at their college or university, as well as a statement of their long-term professional plans.

Thul is active in the Golden Key Honor Society and the Table Tennis Club. He is employed by the Departmental Application Development Team (DADT), for which he writes web-based applications for the campus community. After graduation, he would like to attend graduate school. Currently, he is searching for Ph.D. programs that combine computer science with music.

Thurber is continuing her studies as a graduate student at Drexel University. The former president of TCNJ’s chapter of UPE, she participated in a web accessibility research project on campus. She was also the website manager for the Office of Residential and Community Development and the website coordinator for the Piano Teacher Forum. Over the course of summer 2004, she studied scheduling algorithms at Colorado State University. This past summer, she was a lead instructor at iD Tech Camps at the University of Miami, where she taught programming, robotics, and video gaming.