The National Science Foundation will provide $1.4 million to support a new program at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry. The Mercy Intensive STEM Teacher Initiative is a five-year program that provides scholarships for students receiving training in teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the middle and high school levels.
The program will train 20 students who are pursuing a degree in biology or mathematics, a master’s in adolescence education and a New York state teaching certification. These prospective math and science teachers who received a scholarship will attend STEM Summer Immersion Camps after their freshman and sophomore years. Juniors and seniors will receive an introduction to teaching featuring classroom observations, peer teaching, seminars, workshop development and presentations at the Mercy College Parent Center. The program ends with a full-year clinical residency in high-need middle and high schools.
Mercy College partners with Yonkers public schools, the public schools of the Tarrytowns, Ossining public schools, Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx, Westchester Community College, Bronx Community College and Rockland Community College.
“Students with a background in the STEM fields are well prepared for the needs of tomorrow’s workforce and well positioned to compete in the global economy,” Lowey said in a written statement. “As the demand for students with a background in STEM continues to grow, so does the need for world-class STEM educators. This important federal investment in Mercy College will help ensure that the next generation of those educators are being trained right here in the Lower Hudson Valley.”
U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat, first announced a $788,000 federal grant for Mercy College to support the teaching of STEM programs in 2011.
