Mercy College Awarded Grant from the National Science Foundation to Expand STEM Programs
Dobbs Ferry, NY (PRWEB) August 30, 2013 -- Mercy College has been awarded a $1,447,827.00 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand the College’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics education programs. The grant will be used to establish the Mercy College Intensive STEM Teacher Initiative (MISTI), which will primarily fund educational costs for students to pursue careers in teaching STEM at the middle school and high school levels.
Designated as a five-year program, MISTI will prepare and graduate 20 certified high school or middle school math and biology teachers. Each student will enter the program as a biology or mathematics major, and will earn a master’s in adolescence education, and a New York State teaching certification. To complete the student teaching requirement Mercy College has partnered with:
• Harry S Truman High School in the Bronx
• Ossining Public Schools
• The Public Schools of the Tarrytowns
• Yonkers Public Schools
The program is also in collaboration with:
• Bronx Community College
• Rockland Community College
• Westchester Community College
Activities specifically designed for students in this program include: STEM Summer Immersion Camps at the end of the freshman and sophomore years, an introduction to teaching for juniors and seniors, peer teaching, pedagogical seminars, workshop development and presentations at the Mercy College Parent Center in the Bronx. The program will culminate with a full-year clinical residency in a high-need middle school or high school. The program puts an emphasis on community building, and explicitly integrates STEM subjects through a summer engineering experience at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. MISTI is carefully designed to recruit underrepresented students (specifically women and minorities) to pursue careers teaching the STEM subjects.
Mercy College Interim President, Dr. Concetta M. Stewart, says, “This is a wonderful achievement for Mercy College. It demonstrates the value of collaboration, and how collaboration can be used to advance education. As a society we need to focus on training new STEM teachers. Educators need to make sure that we are fostering these subjects and giving them the respect that they long deserved.”
Mercy College School of Education Dean, Alfred S. Posamentier, says, “This project creates a new pathway for community college students in and around New York City to become STEM educators.”
About Mercy College
Founded in 1950, Mercy College is a private, not-for-profit higher education institution that offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs within five prestigious schools: Business, Education, Health and Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts and Social and Behavioral Sciences. Mercy College offers an engaging and personalized learning experience that includes the College’s Personalized Achievement Contract (PACT) program, the first program of its kind and a nationally recognized model for mentoring. http://www.mercy.edu 877-MERCY-GO.
Catherine Cioffi, Mercy College, +1 (914) 674-7736, [email protected]
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