By Rachel Konieczny
Assistant News Editor
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded St. Bonaventure University $594,287 to assist in recruiting academically eligible students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for the fall of 2015, among other STEM program opportunities.
The five-year grant is the work of former dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Wolfgang Natter, who began discussions with the NSF in the spring of 2012. Natter, the former principal investigator, has since passed his duties on to Dr. Peter Schneible, O.F.M, assistant professor of biology and current principal investigator. Schneible will oversee the administration of the STEM program. Twenty-five scholarships will be awarded to incoming STEM students in fall of 2015 and are based on both academic merit and financial need. According to Dr. David Hilmey, associate professor of chemistry and co-principal investigator, the scholarships will average about $5,000 per recipient, ranging from $3,500 to $6,000.
While $500,000, the majority of the grant, will be allotted for financial aid, the remaining amount will be used to cover conference travel, small stipends for program coordinators and payments for STEM tutors offered through the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). Schneible said the STEM faculty encourages students to do research for conferences, work with the TLC and interact with The Career and Professional Readiness Center (CPRC) to increase student involvement.
In order to improve academic performance and increase student retention rates, the program, titled “Discovery Within Community,” aims to recruit STEM students to the fall 2015 freshman class and enhance the STEM support services. The program incorporates a cohort model, which according to Schneible, “encourages students to live together and brings in speakers for students such as alumni and local industry speakers.”
The purpose of the NSF, according to Schneible, is to bring in as many students as possible to the STEM subjects or into the industry. The plan includes housing students together to form a learning community, allowing students to take several core-area courses together and offering a special STEM course that explores multidisciplinary character of 21st century scientific discovery.
There will be no further funding available to current or future STEM students.
“Any improvements to the STEM majors will certainly be available to all students, if possible,” Hilmey said. “Obviously, programs specific for the grant recipients will go only to those students, but any internship opportunities, facilities improvements, etc. that is not specific to the incoming cohort will be available to all.”
Schneible has his own goals for the future of the STEM program.
“I’m hoping it increases the profile of the sciences and the knowledge of it and recruiting for it,” Schneible said. “I hope it builds a stronger culture of students working together with each other.”
Hilmey said he is hopeful of the possibilities the grant will offer the Bonaventure community.
“This grant helps build a stronger science infrastructure designed to support students,” Hilmey said. “We already have a rigorous set of STEM majors, with good students. This strengthens our ability to help our students achieve success here at Bonas and prepares them for the next stage after college. Although scholarship money may not always be available, as it is next year, the programming and model we are creating here, will.”
Assisting Schneible and accompanying Hilmey as fellow co-principal investigators are computer science professor Dr. Steven Andrianoff, mathematics professor Dr. Doug Cashing and physics professor Dr. Jerry Kiefer.
Interested prospective students should file their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as soon as possible, and no later than the Feb. 15 deadline, according to director of financial aid Troy Martin.
