WCC Receives $3 Million Grant To Increase LatinX Participation In STEM

Press release from Westchester Community College:

Valhalla, NY (September 26, 2023) — SUNY Westchester Community College was awarded a $3 million grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing degrees in STEM at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). The project will help to further the NSF’s commitment to enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

Through this grant, SUNY WCC will establish a HSI Resource Hub (HSI-Hub) that will serve as a catalyst for innovative initiatives at 14 regional SUNY and CUNY Community Colleges to enable them to more effectively serve the HSI community and its stakeholders, including the colleges and their administrators, faculty, and students. Collaborators on the project include Mentor-Connect, a project that mentors community colleges in NSF grantsmanship, and the Center for Broadening Participation in STEM from Arizona State University,

The SUNY community colleges that will participate in this program are: Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Rockland, Suffolk, Sullivan and Westchester. The CUNY community colleges participating are: Borough of Manhattan, Bronx, Guttman, Hostos, Kingsborough, LaGuardia and Queensborough. The eleven counties served by these 14 SUNY and CUNY community colleges are home to 87.5% of all Hispanic and 79.8% of all African American New Yorkers.

This press release was produced by Westchester Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.