NSF awards $45 million to HSI STEM Undergraduate programs

POSTED ON Aug 27, 2018

The National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program) has issued its first research awards for 31 projects totaling approximately $45 million. More than 60 percent of the nation’s Hispanic students attend a Hispanic serving institution.

The Catalyzing Progress in Undergraduate STEM Education with Insights from Midwestern HSIs Conference, held at Northeastern Illinois University, was one of the venues from which the National Science Foundation (NSF) received valuable input to help develop its Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) Program. (Courtesy Northeastern Illinois University).

NSF’s HSI Program invests in projects that build capacity and increase retention and graduation rates for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students at HSIs.

Hispanics constitute 16 percent of the U.S. workforce, but they make up only 6 percent of the U.S. STEM workforce.

“NSF has a long history of funding individual researchers and projects at HSIs,” said Jim Lewis, acting NSF assistant director for education and human resources. “This new program seeks to support growth at HSIs that have traditionally lacked federal resources, to assure that they can encourage the development of scientists and engineers.”

Of the initial 31 projects, NSF issued awards to five community colleges and three universities that have received little to no previous NSF funding.

In addition, a five-year grant will fund an HSI Resource Hub at New Mexico State University, in collaboration with Dona Ana Community College and California State University-Northridge.

The HSI Resource Hub aims to reach HSIs across the nation to build partnerships that will support STEM education, increase STEM research and education capacity at HSIs, and encourage implementation of cutting-edge training in STEM education.

The 2018 awards and recipient institutions include:

Advancing Student Success in Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science, California State University-Fullerton
STEM Undergraduate Success via an Inclusive Institution, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
STEM Faculty Professional Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development, California State University, Sacramento
City College of New York STEM Communities, The City College of New York
Enhancing Undergraduate STEM Education by Enhancing Transfer Success, New York City College of Technology
The Dominican University STEM Success Model to Support Students through Critical Transitions, Dominican University
STEM Student Success from Two-year to Four-year Institutions through Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experiences, Miami Dade College
Building Capacity of Women in STEM, Mount Saint Mary’s University
The NSF National Resource Hub for STEM Education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, New Mexico State University and California State University, Northridge
Addressing Critical Transitions of First-Year STEM Students, Northeastern Illinois University
Integrating Research, Mentoring, and Industry Collaborations to Improve STEM Recruitment and Retention, Phoenix College
Los Futuros de STEM (STEM Futures): Building Student Success in STEM, Pueblo Community College
STEM Transformative Experiences Project, Saint Peter’s University
Positive Learning Opportunities and Research Experiences to Promote Success in STEM, Saint Xavier University
Undergraduate STEM Transitions, Experiences, and Mobility, San Diego State University
Retain and Increase Hispanic Students in Computing, Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM Through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Community Engagement, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Integrated Interventions to Improve Undergraduate Student Success in STEM, University of Houston
A Collaborative Undergraduate STEM Program in Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure, the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras