Fort Valley State University Receives Nearly $400K in Funding For STEM Programs
This fall, Fort Valley State University received nearly $400,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) students. NSF's Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) provides awards to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs.
FVSU's short-term goal is to increase STEM student transfer rates from two to four-year programs and degree attainment among this population by lowering transfer barriers. This goal will be achieved through a joint initiative called The Complete College Georgia Articulation Agreement, an alliance between the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia.
Recruitment efforts will focus on "minority student populations, veterans, and non-traditional students, to promote the seamless transfer of general science education courses and begin academic support for transfer students even before the transfer occurs," according to NSF's award website. Student success will be achieved through various types of programming, including enhanced STEM curriculum, workshops, conferences, research experience, advising, and career guidance.
In 2022, the National Science Foundation awarded FVSU almost $1.4 million to increase STEM enrollment, specifically in math, through the Driving Math Competence through STEM Modeling (D'MCS) project. In 2019, another NSF grant was awarded to support recruitment, retention/scholarships, and extensive support for Plant Science-Biotechnology students with financial need. Other FVSU STEM disciplines that have received support through NSF awards include Geoscience, Genome Engineering, and Computational Data Sciences Programs.