The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) recognizes outstanding mentoring efforts or programs that enhance the participation of historically underrepresented groups in science, mathematics, and engineering.
Juan F. Arratia, is director and principal investigator for the Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) project at Universidad Metropolitana (Puerto Rico). MIE is a program funded by NSF and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which, over the past 11 years, has demonstrated successful strategies for recruiting underrepresented minority students to science and engineering fields and supporting their successful completion of science degrees. At Universidad Metropolitana, Arratia has recruited unprecedented numbers of Hispanic students into STEM fields; increased the retention of STEM majors from the freshman to sophomore year; and given these students comprehensive career advising. Among the help he has provided to more than 500 undergraduate Hispanic STEM students and more than 1800 pre-college Hispanic students is providing them with summer research experiences in the U.S. and abroad.
