CSUB receives $5 million grant to increase STEM opportunities

Department of Education grant will fund career pathway programs

By California State University, Bakersfield

September 24^th, 2021

The United States Department of Education is awarding California State University, Bakersfield’s School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering $5 million over five years to expand the university’s innovative, inclusive initiatives to increase STEM opportunities for the benefit of our students and the region we serve.

The Department of Education awarded grants to more than 90 Hispanic-serving institutions to help bridge the equity gap that underrepresented minority and low-income students regularly face in higher education. CSUB is one of 33 California institutes being funded, along with Bakersfield College.

“CSUB is at the forefront of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in our region, and we are so thankful to the Department of Education for investing in us,” said university president Dr. Lynnette Zelezny. “This $5 million grant will benefit our students with increased opportunities for STEM internships, research and graduate training, which will yield tremendous benefits for our regional workforce.”

Interim dean of NSME Dr. Todd McBride and project director for the grant program Dr. Charles Lam led the application for the grant, consulting with department chairs and CSUB Provost Dr. Vernon Harper, who was key in the application process, Dr. McBride and Dr. Lam said.

“Investing in our students’ future is of the utmost importance,” Dr. Harper said. “Thank you to the Department of Education, for with this grant we can do just that, along with continuing the work of closing equity gaps.”

Building on the success of a previous a five-year Department of Education grant that gave NSME $6 million to develop a variety of interventions for first-year students pursing STEM degrees, the new grant focuses on internships, career-planning services and strengthening CSUB’s relationships with local industry employers who are in need of qualified STEM employees.

“The initiatives this grant will fund are all about closing the equity gap when it comes to placing our students in STEM discipline-based careers,” said Dr. McBride. “Students interested in STEM majors often don’t know much about the possible careers available to them upon graduation. This grant will focus on preparation for careers in STEM and will include career advising, internships and workshops specific to careers available in our service area. Companies in Kern County want to hire our graduates because they know by experience, they will stay in the area and build their career here.

"The grant will let us build programs that ensure students receive all the support they need as they plan for their education and beyond,” Dr. McBride continued.

The previous grant, awarded in 2016, included a suite of strategies to help first-year students, including the Pathways program that offers workshops on life skills, peer mentoring, intrusive advising and cohort enrollment. Those strategies were successful, giving students the tools they needed to succeed throughout their time at CSUB and graduate on time. Still, Dr. McBride and Dr. Lam wondered what else the school could do to support students.

“We were talking about what we wanted to do to improve the quality of the programs,” Dr. Lam said. “For the new grant, one of the focuses is on career-development, developing a STEM workforce for the country. We’re focusing on what possible careers STEM majors can pursue and helping to develop internships and educate students and the community about STEM careers in our region.”

The grant, which officially begins on Oct. 1, will include hiring an outreach coordinator and community college liaison, bilingual family workshops to talk about school and future careers, collaboration with Bakersfield College to remove any remaining transfer barriers, a first-year seminar to introduce NSME students to different majors, and a speaker series highlighting the experiences of CSUB alumni, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

“We believe that the community is not well-informed about the diversity of STEM careers here, that they feel like they would have to go somewhere else to work,” Dr. Lam said. “That’s a hurdle for students to get into STEM majors.”

Another focus of the grant is on helping students get the kind of real-world experience that makes them competitive in the job market after college. It will create a STEM internship and career coordinator position within CSUB’s Center for Career Education and Community Engagement, develop undergraduate research programs for students who are thinking about graduate school or research careers and create a framework to build relationships with local employers.

Though the grant is specifically for schools with a large Latino population, these programs will be open to help all students succeed.

“We know Kern County has a high innovation capacity and we are not yet living up to that potential,” Dr. Lam said. “This grant will help CSUB to be the institute of change for this area. There is a serious equity gap in the STEM workforce in the entire country. CSUB being an HSI, we have a great opportunity to use these funds to help close the gap.”