Last October, the UTRGV College of Sciences received a $1.4 million award from the National Science Foundation to develop science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses with cultural and community relevance.
Along with 53 other Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the state, UTRGV is a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, an association for upper-level education institutions, representing more than 470 universities that hold over two-thirds of the U.S. Hispanic university population, according to its website.
The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions award is estimated to end Sept. 30, 2023. The university will receive $1,480,002, according to the National Science Foundation’s website.
Partnered with UTRGV’s B3 Institute, the Center for Teaching Excellence and Office of Community Engagement and Economic Development, the College of Sciences will design Community Engaged Scholarship and Learning courses.
The National Science Foundation dedicated $100,000 in scholarships from the award to be offered to students who register and stay in the course.
The money is to be awarded over the course of five years, in which students may apply for a $1,000 scholarship, according to Juan Salinas,
a UTRGV lecturer and program coordinator for Community Engaged Scholarship and Learning.
Students can find the course in their UTRGV ASSIST account, under “CESL 3301.” The university is offering three sections this semester, two on the Edinburg campus and one online. More sections are expected to be offered next semester.
“[Students] take all of their skills that they normally would learn in a classroom, but they are applying it out in the real world,” Salinas said.
In these courses, faculty partner with a community organization during the semester. The professor then reviews what the organization needs and teaches the students the knowledge and skills they will need to work with them.
Community Engaged Scholarship and Learning courses are taught by professors who have attended the workshops offered by the program team.
Currently teaching a community engaged course is Teresa “Paty” Feria, a UTRGV associate professor of biology. Feria “definitely” recommends that faculty join the program.
“We are a Hispanic-Serving Institution, so we need to understand our culture, the culture of our students,” Feria said.
On Feb. 1, the first of three workshops of the semester was held, in which 13 professors arrived accompanied by community organizations that will also work with students in the course, according to Salinas.
This project is intended to resolve the “lack of achievement that Hispanic students find in STEM fields,” Francisco Guajardo,
executive director of the B3 Institute and co-principal investigator of the project, said in an interview with The Rider.
It is expected that these innovations will enhance students’ success in STEM, helping to address a national need to increase diversity in STEM fields,” the National Science Foundation website states about the award.
The program consists of faculty going through a “professional development process” in which they are taught to “teach in a way [they] can connect to the culture of the student,” Guajardo said.
It is the College of Sciences’ goal to have 25 percent of its faculty to be trained in these workshops, according to Salinas.
As the project develops, the department team hopes to create dual-language certificate programs in math and biology, according to Guajardo. The certificates will be offered to undergraduate students in mathematics or biology degrees and who take 15 hours in field-related courses taught in Spanish, allowing the students to receive a “dual-language professional stamp” on their bachelor’s degree.
“This is a very unique opportunity that we have through the National Science Foundation to really, kind of, transform the way we teach science,” said Alexis Racelis, a UTRGV assistant professor of biology and principal investigator.
