Eight Missouri universities will share a $5 million grant for minority students in science, technology, engineering and math education. The grant comes from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.
The program was created by the National Science Foundation to promote the successes of minority students studying STEM in higher education institutions.
Rob Margetta is a public affairs specialist at the National Science Foundation.
“Giving them access to STEM education is important but you also need to find ways to make sure those people, the people who enter degree programs and those subjects actually graduate and so that is what this grant is intended to enhance our ability to do.”
Margetta also said the program doesn’t just end with getting students involved in STEM education.
An important part of the initiative is to support minority students until they graduate and complete their programs.
LeRoy Jones II is the director of the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Midwest Center of Excellence.
“Just putting more students into the STEM workforce to diversify it because when you do that, you bring new ideals to the table. And new creativity and you have individuals who can approach problems and come up with solutions in different ways.”
Jones also said addressing the lack of diversity in STEM makes America as a whole more competitive in the 21st century.
According to a study done by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center of Education Statistics, underrepresented minority and first generation students leave the field of STEM at a higher rate than their counterparts.
The University of Missouri is among the eight schools who received part of the funding.