This Mathematics, Engineering, Technology, and Science (METS) Scholarship Program builds on a prior, highly successful scholarship program at Bronx Community College (BCC), a minority-serving, two-year institution of the City University of New York system. Through support of 20 to 25 students each year, the central goal of the program is to increase the number of well-prepared BCC graduates in scientific fields - both those who continue to a four-year college and those who directly join the high technology work force. Scholarship recipients are recruited from mathematics, science and scientific technology courses at BCC as well as from local high schools as they matriculate at BCC. The METS Scholarship Program also supports scholarship recipients who graduate from BCC and transfer to a four-year institution of the City University of New York for their junior year, if they are still in good academic standing, are full-time students, and are research associates with a BCC faculty mentor. In total, a student can be supported for a maximum of six semesters.
Student scholars and BCC faculty members constitute the METS Academy, modeled on BCC's Science Academy and Honors Program. In the Academy, each student is assigned a faculty member who is the student's mentor and advisor throughout the student's participation in the program. Since all students in STEM fields take calculus and either chemistry or physics, student cohorts arise through participation in common courses. In addition, the chairs of the mathematics, physics and chemistry departments meet to determine the schedules for the courses so that they do not overlap. This enables the same students to take Calculus I or II with Physics I or II or Chemistry I or II. As Biology majors have to take four semesters of chemistry, they also benefit from this block scheduling. Additional student support services of the METS Academy further enhance mutually supportive cohort relationships. For example, the Academy sponsors talks by alumni who are continuing their education or who work in the technology industry. The Academy also offers tutoring, including peer-led enrichment workshops in physics and mathematics for science and engineering students through a collaboration with Hostos Community College. To further students' understanding of scientific research, the METS Academy provides students with information about research opportunities and encourages them to enroll in a Research Enrichment Seminar. As they approach their later semesters at BCC, scholarship recipients are directed to the Office of Career Services for workshops on interviewing skills and resume writing and to the Transfer Center as they approach graduation.
Success of the METS Scholarship Program is being studied by evaluating the following: - percentage of scholarship recipients who graduate and transfer to a STEM major at a four-year college or find employment in the technology area; - increased enrollment in STEM fields at BCC; - an increase in the number of women enrolled in STEM majors at BCC; and - the number of high school students who enroll in STEM programs at BCC.
