Three graduate students receive first Beck Foundation Scholarships

Dec. 8, 2008 -- Three recipients, Shrikant Mandapaty, Srikanth Tatipaka, and Taylor Ingle, have been awarded the first Beck Foundation Scholarships for Knowledge-Based Small Business Development at Arkansas State University.

The annual scholarship of $1,250 per student provides incentives for students from STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines to partner with students in business disciplines as a means to stimulate new business start-ups with a high rate of success from entrepreneurial scientists and knowledge-based, industry-oriented business professionals.

This scholarship was developed out of a university initiative embodied in the Colleges of Sciences and Mathematics; Engineering; Agriculture; and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, to better align student training and opportunities with the changing requirements of knowledge-based economic development and employment in its service region.  A goal of this project is to produce regional economic development success stories through the student development of skills to communicate across the STEM and Business disciplines; small business development skills including a business plan; an understanding of a knowledge-based industry; and a foundation to become successful entrepreneurs in a knowledge-based economy.

The funding for this scholarship is provided out of an endowment fund through the Arkansas State University Foundation and a match from the STEM colleges, ABI, and the College of Business.

Tatipaka, of Hyderabad, India, and son of Ramarao Tatipaka and Esther Vanitha Talluri, is a graduate student currently pursuing a master of agriculture degree in the College of Agriculture.

Mandapaty, of India, and son of M.P. Prasad and Lakshmi Prasad, is a graduate student pursuing a master of business degree in the College of Business.

Ingle is a doctoral graduate student in the Molecular Bioscience Institute at ASU. She resides in Jonesboro with her husband, James, and their three sons.            

###