Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A longtime administrator with the Career Center's cooperative education program at Mississippi State is receiving a national honor for his work in higher education.
Associate director Mike Mathews, who began his career with the land-grant university in 1975, is receiving the 2005 Clement J. Freund Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. The honor recognizes distinguished, continuing contributions to cooperative education at academic institutions.
Founded in 1893, ASEE represents more than 18,000 professionals, including deans, professors, instructors, students, and industry representatives whose work supports engineering and technology education.
"Mike is a cornerstone of our program, which is among the oldest and largest in the Southeast," said Career Center director Luther Epting.
"The Freund Award is not presented every year, and being selected is considered a highly prestigious honor," Epting added.
Open to all academic majors, the MSU "co-op" program--now celebrating its 50th year--had its origins in the College of Engineering. Since being established in the summer of 1955 as the first of its kind in Mississippi, it has served 10,000 students.
Some 750 current MSU students alternate semesters between academic coursework on campus and off-campus employment at locations around the country related to their fields of study.
Mathews earlier received ASEE's Alvah K. Borman Award, the highest recognition presented by the society's Cooperative Education Division.
A West Point native and resident, Mathews earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Mississippi State in 1972 and a master's of business administration in 1978.