| View All |
September 11, 2009
For Immediate Release
For more information: Richard Tolman (801) 863-6229
University Marketing & Communications: Erin Spurgeon, (801) 863-6807
Written by: Alex Strickland (801) 863-6351
Math and science education students at Utah Valley University have a generous new scholarship opportunity thanks to a grant totaling more than three quarters of a million dollars from the National Science Foundation.
The NSF awarded UVU a Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grant of $861,437 to fund scholarships for juniors and seniors pursuing degrees in math education or science education. It was the only such award given to any college or university in the state.
Biology professor Richard Tolman said the grant will fund $10,000 scholarships for juniors and seniors in the math and science education programs for five years, hopefully helping students go on to fill a critical need in the state’s education system.
"More teachers are retiring than we are graduating from all the institutions of higher education in Utah," he said. "That’s true all across the country."
Because of that shortage of math and science educators, UVU’s role as a quality program in those fields is amplified thanks to the large number of graduates the school sends into the workforce. According to a report commissioned by the Utah System of Higher Education in 2007, UVU graduated more than twice the number of science education majors as the next closest public institution in the state and was near the top of the list in math education as well.
"We’ve got local districts that call us and ask, ‘Do you have anyone else,’" Tolman said. "They like the teachers we’re putting out and they’re coming after them to hire them."
Tolman cited one example in Lehi, Utah, where five of eight science teachers at Willow Creek Middle School are UVU graduates.
For the first year, Tolman said that junior and senior math education and biology education students can apply for the scholarship, with six $10,000 awards slated to be given out. In the 2010-2011 school year, students in chemistry education, physics education and earth science education will be added to the pool of potential applicants and the grant will fund 14 awards of $10,000 each for the remaining four years.
Any student who is awarded the scholarship must teach at a Title 1 or equivalent secondary school for one year for each of the years they received the funding. Title 1 is a federal designation that indicates a high level of low-income or otherwise disadvantaged or at-risk students. If student recipients of the Noyce Scholarship do not fulfill their in-state teaching obligation, then they will have to repay UVU for the full amount of the scholarship.
Another component of the funding is to provide information about opportunities in science and math education to current Title 1, or equivalent, students in high schools around the area.
Tolman said he hopes those efforts will pay off in the future as more students are attracted to teaching and can help close the gap in the current supply and demand.
"We also plan on having students teach at schools with high populations of Native American students," Tolman said. "We also want to do recruiting there for the program to try to get their graduates here."
For more information on the NSF Noyce Grant, visit http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5733.
###