MSU’s Sherwin selected for DoD SMART Scholarship, spends summer with hometown Vicksburg’s ERDC
Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State mechanical engineering senior Marin Sherwin of Vicksburg is receiving the coveted SMART Scholarship from the U.S. Department of Defense.
SMART is an acronym for Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation, and the prestigious award is part of a scholarship-for-service program that pays full tuition and gives a generous stipend among other benefits for selected undergraduate and graduate students. SMART scholars then receive civilian employment with the DoD upon degree completion.
Sherwin is interning this summer in her hometown at the U.S. Army Engineering Research Development Center, or ERDC, and specifically working in its Geotechnical Structures Laboratory and Mobile Systems branch, where she’s had the chance to work with autonomous military vehicle development and testing.
“The Bagley College of Engineering has a long history of partnering with the DoD in research and education. We are very proud of Marin for continuing that tradition by earning the highly competitive SMART Scholarship and working with ERDC,” said MSU Bagley College of Engineering Dean David Ford.
The Warren Central High School graduate first received an associate degree from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where she was a Phi Theta Kappa scholar before transferring to MSU and its Bagley College of Engineering and Hall School of Mechanical Engineering.
Sherwin is on track with plans to graduate in December 2026 and start her career at ERDC in January 2027.
“I’m excited to be financially stable and have a job right out of graduation in my hometown,” Sherwin said.
Visit MSU’s Bagley College of Engineering and Hall School of Mechanical Engineering at www.bagley.msstate.edu and www.me.msstate.edu.
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