The Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network is conducting two annual proposal development workshops aimed at increasing the development and awareness of granstmanship opportunities related to the Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program at several Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Individual workshops include two person teams from each of 15 MSIs interested in developing a Noyce proposal. The Noyce program and scholarships attract and retain qualified students majoring in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and encourages them to pursue a career in the teaching profession. The QEM workshops provide participants from MSIs feedback on their required project summaries to assist them in, among other things, developing their ideas into competitive Noyce proposals. In turn, the MSIs participating in the workshop use the Noyce award as a stimulus for strengthening their teacher education programs to produce high quality mathematics and science teachers who will eventually work in high-need areas. MSIs are uniquely qualified to address the issue of recruiting, retaining, and developing STEM teachers for high-need schools, especially in urban areas. In this sense, the workshops are helping to develop stronger MSIs, in general, and teacher preparation programs, specifically, to meet the nation's needs for a more productive science and technology workforce.
