The Center for Excellence for Minority Women in STEM is the initiative that the Spelman College team will develop as a result of this new grant from the US Department of Justice (DOJ).  This new center will be pivotal in the further development of career professionals graduating from Spelman College who achieve success in the STEM occupations.

This is not the first Spelman College grant with a focus on STEM.  In 2018, Dr. Maira Goytia, Assistant Professor of Biology at the college, received a 2-year grant from the National Science Foundation in the amount of $149,506.  Prior to that, Spelman also received funding to recruit and prepare STEM teachers.

As a recognized Model Institution for Excellence (MIE) by the NSF, Spelman College, one of the two all-women HBCU's, has a track record of successfully recruiting, training and graduating professionals into STEM careers.  These MIE grants typically have 6 areas of focus for these grants including recruiting students into STEM majors, student support, undergraduate research, faculty and curriculum development and graduate school or career initiatives.

So far Spelman College has done an impressive job graduating students with STEM degrees.  Twenty six percent of their graduates in 2017 received STEM degrees.  This is compared to 16 % at other HBCUs and 17 % at other liberal arts colleges.