Funding, Grants & Awards

Queens College to Boost STEM Diversity With Federal Funds

• By Sri Ravipati
• 11/28/16

Queens College recently received $968,562 from the United States Department of Education (ED) for the first installment of a $5.6 million grant issued last month. The public university will use the grant over the next five years to redesign courses and programs “to improve access, improve learning and create bridges for STEM students,” according to the announcement.

The ED awarded more than $104 million in grant funding to Minority Serving Institutions nationwide this month. The majority of that funding ($92 million) went to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) like Queens College, where the student population is 26 percent Hispanic. Aside from redesigning courses, the latest round of funding will help enhance mentoring services and facilitate peer-led instruction, in an effort to foster learning outside of the classroom. Queens College will collaborate with Queensborough Community College, forming a team of administrators and faculty from both institutions to oversee grant disbursement operations.

“This is a very innovative and transformational grant opportunity that will spark great growth in our STEM enrollment,” said Félix Matos Rodríguez, Queens College President, in a statement. “And the beauty of this Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant is that it will help all students — not just Latinos and low-income students — because the curricular changes and programs developed will be open to all students here and at Queensborough. I am proud to say that our efforts at promoting the STEM fields at the college have already been rewarded, as over a third of our current undergraduates major in these important fields, and of those students, over half are minority students.”