Tennessee Tech will use a $760,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to help boost the STEM educator workforce.
Mathematics Professor Dr. Holly Anthony said she and a team of professors will provide scholarships to students pursuing a teaching license while remaining in their STEM major. Anthony said the scholarships will focus specifically on Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics, as there is a shortage of STEM educators nationwide. Anthony said offering scholarships is a great way to address the shortage.
“Often times, if you have a STEM major, right, you can make more money going into that field in a pure sort of sense,” Anthony said. “Education doesn’t pay as well, but what we find is that a number of those folks are not happy in those positions later, and that teaching is a very rewarding profession.”
Anthony said one requirement of the scholarship is that the student must teach at a high-needs school for one year. Anthony said this requirement could help some of the local school districts in the Upper Cumberland.
“The scholarship recipients can actually work in any high-needs school district in the United States,” Anthony said. “They do not have to stay in Tennessee or the Upper Cumberland, but we do have our Upper Cumberland School district partners, whom we are hoping will benefit from this partnership because they will be given priority in hiring and placing our scholars after they receive the scholarship.”
Anthony said the scholarships are worth an estimated $24,000 over a four-semester cycle. Anthony said the grant will support anywhere from 22-30 students.
Anthony said this is not the first time Tennessee Tech has done a similar scholarship program. Anthony said the university previously had what was called the Noyce Scholarship Program. Anthony said it is exciting to take what the university previously had and push it one step further.
“We saw the impact that had on those students and in those districts to which they continued teaching,” Anthony said. “And so we were excited to pursue that again and add in the engineering piece. So, Dr. Chris Wilson brings that element that we did not have in our first project, and we are excited to hopefully recruit some of our engineering majors in this project as well.”
Anthony said she was thrilled to receive the grant, especially in a year where federal funding has been lean. Anthony said the scholarship program is expected to have scholarships ready this coming January. STEM major students interested in the scholarship opportunity can reach out to Anthony for more information.
