The University of Arkansas has received a $1.25 million federal grant for a summer program that encourages underrepresented students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, art and math.
The five-year grant will be used to recruit and support 400 students and 15 teachers to a summer program at the university. The program targets rising sixth graders from Reed Elementary in Dumas, which is largely rural, low-resource and Black.
The program has three primary goals:
- To improve STEAM awareness, academic performance, graduation rates, and college enrollment for participating students
- To improve STEAM teaching performance and efficacy for STEAM teachers in Dumas
- To build college savings for student participants and their families through $50 seed deposits a gift fund
“As an underrepresented minority within the STEM disciplines, it’s very important to me that we change the demographic — the representation that’s within those disciplines,” Tameka Bailey, an assistant professor of biological sciences and the grant’s project director, said in a news release. “I want to connect the two communities — my home in Fayetteville and my native home of Gould and Dumas.
“For me, growing up, opportunity was everything. Had I not been exposed to STEM very early on I would not have become a research scientist.”
The funds are provided through the National Institutes of Health’s Science Education Partnership.
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