Gigi Flynn

Writer

The University has received a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to build a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) summer program.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences George Shields has had success with this program at Hamilton College and Armstrong Atlantic State University.

For the next five years, 20 students, all potential science majors, will do research at the University for five weeks the summer before their first year. These select students will also have the opportunity to do research at the University one other summer, for 10 weeks, after their first year. The students will be paid $350 a week.

The program will also help expose new science majors to University students already participating in research on campus.

“We want to build a connection between incoming students and upperclassman,” Shields said.

The STEM program will increase the number of mathematics, science, and engineering majors at the University. It will also increase the diversity in these fields of study by providing opportunities to first generation college students, low-income students, and female students, all nationally underrepresented in the sciences, Shields said.