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Funds to Increase STEM Enrollment of the Under-Represented

Jersey City, N.J. – October 18, 2016  (NJCU) has been awarded a $5.7 million U.S. Department of Education Title III grant through the Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) Program.  

The five-year grant (Project STEM: Evidence-based Approaches to STEM Enrollment, Retention and Graduation at an Urban Public Hispanic-Serving Institution) will enable NJCU to implement a program of interventions intended to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students attaining degrees in six STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields at the University.

In announcing the grant award, NJCU President Sue Henderson stated, “This generous federal grant will impact significantly the future of STEM in New Jersey and beyond.  By increasing Latino participation in the STEM professions, we will take an important step towards strategically building our nation’s workforce, strengthening our scientific community, and advancing global research and innovation.”

NJCU Provost and Academic Vice President Daniel J. Julius said, “The awarding of this grant represents an important step forward for NJCU as the University continues to achieve excellence in STEM fields. Our talented and committed faculty are absolutely essential to our ability to fulfill and enhance our mission for our students. The award will fund scientific equipment that will further the top-notch research our faculty are undertaking with our students.”

Dr. Julius continued, “This exciting initiative will also bring into alignment NJCU student success initiatives and our plans to enhance innovation and competitiveness, and provide a foundation for career success.”

The overall goal of the initiative is to increase graduation rates and enhance the educational experience of STEM majors through improved laboratory facilities and academic support services. ��è�ƽ�� 56% of NJCU’s undergraduate students belong to underrepresented minority groups, and 52% of NJCU’s undergraduates are transfer students, largely from six nearby minority-serving community colleges.

The grant provides over $750,000 in funding toward the purchase of state-of-the-art scientific equipment and software; the outfitting of student study spaces in NJCU’s Science Building, currently under construction and renovation; and the installation of lecture capture technology in science classrooms.

The project will enable the University to introduce an innovative Summer STEM Academy for rising sophomores and incoming transfer students, and greatly expand student research opportunities. Each year, dozens of NJCU students will conduct cutting-edge research with faculty and gain hands-on, real-world experience with modern laboratory equipment, helping to prepare them for careers in research-related fields.

Project Director Dr. John Grew, Chair of NJCU’s Biology Department, describes how sustained growth in NJCU’s STEM programs has built on ten prior years of Title III support. That support provided access to sophisticated facilities, technology and instrumentation to several thousand STEM students through educational and research activities and yielded over one hundred student research presentations at regional and national scientific conferences. Over that period of time, NJCU’s STEM programs grew to approximately 14% of its undergraduate population and now number approximately 900 students.

The purpose of federal Hispanic-Serving Institutions - Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (HSI STEM) and Articulation Programs is to increase the number of Hispanic and other low-income students attaining degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; and to develop model transfer and articulation agreements between two-year and four-year institutions in such fields.