New scholarship encourages diverse students to follow donor’s footsteps

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Akshai Rajendran and Benjamin Matos
Akshai Rajendran (left) and Benjamin Matos at the 21st Annual College of Engineering Scholarship Luncheon on April 2, 2022.

First-year student Benjamin Matos has dreams of a career in coding after college. Thanks to the generosity of a complete stranger, his dream is well on its way to becoming a reality.

The computer science and engineering major was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Diversity in Computer Engineering Scholarship, which will fund his full tuition at Ohio State until he graduates. Having that financial burden lifted is felt by his entire family, said the Dayton, Ohio native.

“A great peace washed over me when I found out about this scholarship,” said Matos. “My parents and I are worrywarts, so this is a big weight off my shoulders, as well as theirs. Saving money will be easier throughout my college experience, and I can start post-grad life strong. Even before graduating, moving out of the dorms is going to feel less stressful.”

Easing financial strain was one of the main motivating factors for the donor, Akshai Rajendran. Although not an Ohio State alumnus—he graduated from Northwestern University—Rajendran identifies with the Buckeye motto of “paying forward.”

“I was fortunate enough to go to a university and not have to worry about tuition or paying for my expenses,” said Rajendran, whose parents helped fund his education. “That gave me the ability to enjoy my time there, whether it was with friends or studying or pursuing extracurricular activities, and I think that being able to go to school worry-free from a financial perspective is incredibly powerful and can have a really meaningful impact. I wanted to give that to someone else.”

Rajendran decided his gift would support a first-year student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering who was from his hometown of Dayton. The renewable scholarship is awarded to students with the greatest financial need, with special consideration to those who are from underrepresented backgrounds.

“As a person of color myself it's important to me to give back to that part of my identity and to that community,” he said. “A big philosophy of mine is that we’re all a product of our circumstances and our luck, and if I can help level that playing field, I think that’s a great thing to do.”

He chose Ohio State over his alma mater not only because it was “close to home,” but because of the increased impact his gift could have at a public university versus a private institution.

“So much of the success that I've been able to achieve has come from programming and computer science and computer engineering, and it's so critical to what I do,” said Rajendran, who has a background in financial trading and currently operates a cryptocurrency fund in New York. “I’ve hired a lot of software engineers, and I’ve seen the kind of doors in the world that open for people with a strong computer science background. My hope was to motivate someone from Ohio to follow a similar path.”

Thanks to the support of his donor, Matos is well positioned to have those same opportunities. With an artistic mind and a passion for designing appealing user experiences, he hopes to eventually become a web developer or game designer.

“Seriously, it amazes me how someone who doesn’t know me decided to help out with my education,” said Matos. “It’s an honor to receive such an award! I am very lucky that people like Akshai exist in the world.”

To make an immediate impact in the lives of engineering students from underrepresented groups, please consider contributing to the Minority Engineering Program Scholarship Fund.

by Meggie Biss, College of Engineering Communications | biss.11@osu.edu