Project TUESTYC: A Workshop and Mentoring Program for Two-Year College Faculty

St. Catherine University, Saint Paul MN

Investigators

Abstract

The Nation's two-year colleges (2YCs) educate a substantial and rapidly growing number of undergraduate students, including a significant number of students in STEM fields. Furthermore, the racial, ethnic, and geographic diversity of students served by 2YCs make these institutions key entry points to STEM fields for students who have been historically underrepresented. The Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM of Two-Year Colleges (TUESTYC) project is developing and implementing a grant writing workshop and mentoring program for STEM faculty from 2YCs. Project components are designed to address the barriers to participation in TUES program faced by 2YC faculty. The overall goals of the project are to broaden awareness of the TUES program as a resource for 2YCs and to increase the number of TUES awards to these institutions. This project is extending the work of two previous projects by specifically targeting faculty from the disciplines of biology, engineering, and physics/astronomy. By enhancing participation of target faculty in the TUES program, the project is directly impacting 2YC faculty and students through improved curricula, pedagogy, and instrumentation. Furthermore, by broadening the TUES community to include institutions not previously represented, the project is seeking to further facilitate collaboration between 2YCs and the broader undergraduate STEM community.