Stephen Fuselier has long understood the value of education.
For 14 years, the acting vice president of the Space Science Division at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been an adjoint professor at The University of Texas at San Antonio as part of the SwRI-UT San Antonio Graduate Program in Physics.
“I love working with these students,” Fuselier said. “I sit down with them on day one, and I have a mindset that they’re not a student, they’re a colleague and we’re collaborating on a project. I want them to approach their graduate career with that mindset, and they inspire me in turn. I think my interaction with a graduate student is successful if I learn something from them.”
Now Fuselier with his wife Elizabeth Parker have created a scholarship to support UT San Antonio students financially. The Stephen Fuselier and Elizabeth Packer Endowed Scholarship offers $2,000 a year to students majoring in physics or electrical engineering.
Inspired by others
Fuselier and Parker met at the University of Southern California, where he studied physics and she studied biomedical engineering. After graduating from USC with his bachelor’s degree, Fuselier went on to earn a master’s and a doctorate in physics from the University of Iowa.
Fuselier joined SwRI in 2011. While Packer initially pursued a career in engineering, she later pivoted to working as a nutritionist, ultimately retiring from the Veterans Health Administration in 2014.
“As undergraduates, we were both supported by scholarships,” Fuselier said. “I was lucky to have parents that could pay for some of my education, but my wife would not have been able to do it without the generosity of these scholarship funds.”
While Fuselier and Packer contribute to scholarship funds at the University of Iowa, they also were inspired by the efforts of SwRI staff members to support students at UT San Antonio. Those efforts include the SwRI-UT San Antonio Scholarship for Children and Dependents of SwRI Employees and The Joey Mukherjee Endowed Scholarship for Computer Science Students Who Don’t Run Good, created by SwRI Institute Computer Scientist Joey Mukherjee, a UT San Antonio alum.
“My wife and I went to the ceremony last fall to thank donors, and I saw the impact it had on these wonderful students,” Fuselier said. “I spoke to Joey about his experience, and we looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we create a scholarship?’”
“No one’s dreams should be limited — we want the best possible workforce out there,” Fuselier said. “We need more physicists and engineers, and if this helps, that’s a good thing. It’s so rewarding to see graduates of our joint program go on to impactful careers, and in some cases return to SwRI.”
“At this point, UT San Antonio feels very close to home,” he added. “A lot of students who benefit from these scholarships are first-generation college students, and it’s wonderful to hear their stories and about their aspirations.
“I know that a scholarship like this isn’t a lot compared to the whole cost of a college education. But the impact goes far beyond that. It means a lot to the students. It’s wonderful for them to put that on their resume, or to come home and tell their parents, ‘Hey, I got a scholarship.’”
