News
College partners with SUNY Stony Brook on federal grant to increase underrepresented minority students in STEM
Westchester Community College is receiving $100,000 ($20,000 per year for five years) as a partner institution for a new $4 million five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant designed to increase the number of underrepresented minority (UREP) students receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The grant coordinated by SUNY’s Stony Brook University supports the SUNY Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (SUNY LSAMP) program, a synergistic collaboration and alliance of fourteen SUNY schools with a diverse mix of academic strengths and capabilities.
Since 1996, SUNY LSAMP has been an instrumental program shaping STEM education and forging new opportunities for UREP students to pursue and succeed in STEM programs and degrees in New York State. Over the past twenty years, SUNY LSAMP has achieved an eleven-fold increase in STEM enrollment for minority students in comparison to the previous twenty years in the state. The program has also helped increase STEM bachelor’s degrees by almost 300 percent. During the past five years, the program has been a catalyst to helping to nearly double community college students transferring to four-year STEM undergraduate programs.
“Competition for talent in STEM occupations is high, and we offer a range of pathways into these fields. Our partnership with Stony Brook University expands the talent pipeline for underrepresented minorities sought by many employers,” says Belinda S. Miles, President, Westchester Community College.
As one of the partner schools in the SUNY LSAMP alliance, Westchester Community College will provide tutoring and mentorship resources to students, sponsor university visits to encourage transfer after graduation, and initiate various summer research projects. Stony Brook and the other SUNY schools will look to expand the alliance and create additional STEM curriculum opportunities for students. Over the next five years, the three primary goals of the project will be to meet the continuing challenge of preparing UREP students for a successful transition into STEM majors; provide experimental activities that lead to socialization into science; and promote systemic change by broadening participation in research.
“Our alliance will scale up programs that build our momentum to increase student recruitment and retention,” says David Ferguson, SUNY LSAMP Project Director. “We will also focus on improving STEM pathways from community colleges to four-year schools and creating a pipeline to produce global researchers and scholars.”
To date, SUNY LSAMP has taken leadership in STEM curricular reform on the SUNY campuses and has supported UREP STEM student needs. The effort has led to engagement among faculty, staff, administrators and heads of academic departments to create new infrastructures on campuses to enhance UREP students’ participation and pursuit of STEM higher education.
SUNY LSAMP has also received ten grants for NSF fellowships and support services for twelve LSAMP graduates through the LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program. The Bridge program has increased the UREP STEM doctoral pool by bringing in students from LSAMP programs around the country and supporting them in their first two years of SUNY graduate work and on to completion of their doctorates.
The NSF has supported the SUNY LSAMP program since its inception. This latest grant is the fifth stage of funding and will build upon and fine-tune the Fostering STEM Identity through Transitions (FIT) model that will conduct an in-depth theory driven examination of the pivotal experiences that lead to engagement, retention and over-all success of UREP STEM college students.