Funds will expand STEM education for minority students, including research internships, field experience, and technology training, creating new career pathways for students!
Miami, Sept. 22, 2021 – Miami Dade College (MDC) has been awarded three grants totaling more than $14 million over the next five years from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education’s Hispanic Serving Institutions – STEM & Articulation Programs to enhance the success of minority students in critical STEM fields.
“This investment from the U.S. Department of Education ensures MDC continues serving as the workforce engine for Greater Miami,” said MDC President Madeline Pumariega. “This vital funding will support innovative programs, including in artificial intelligence, data sciences and quantum computing, that create much needed STEM career pathways for women, Black and Hispanic students.”
MDC’s School of Science will receive $5 million for its STEM Strategies for Maximizing Achievement, Retention, and Transfer (STEM SMART) project, which will provide undergraduate research internships and field-based experiences; research skills training; STEM completion and transfer assistance; a peer support system and online supplemental instruction; an enhanced virtual STEM Community of Interest; college tours; and professional development for faculty undergraduate research mentors.
Another $5 million will go to MDC North Campus for its STEM Pathways for Acceleration, Completion, and Transfer Success (STEM PACTS) project. STEM PACTS provides supplemental instruction, research internships, field-based experiences, a virtual STEM Community of Interest, peer mentoring, and career and transfer advising to college students; and outreach and a STEM summer bridge program to high school students. The College will also renovate an existing lab to serve as the STEM Reinventing Educational Equity for Students Center, a new STEM Student Center on campus.
MDC Wolfson Campus will receive $4,449,913 for the STEM Legacy project, which will establish the STEM AXIS Center (a centralized resource hub for students); develop a peer-to-peer learning community; provide mentoring and tutoring through Peer Academic Leaders and PeerLed Team Learning; implement specialized courses; hold workshops; provide appreciative advising; enhance STEM facilities; and coordinate research and internship opportunities.