Keaton, who recently participated in the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation’s mid-program summit, said the number of students completing course work in trigonometry, statistics, and chemistry has also increased.
He said NMC continues to promote a competitive summer bridge program to recruit and retain high school graduates who proved their talents in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines.
Through funding from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, or LSAMP, Keaton said the college was able to send two students to Hawaii last summer for an LSAMP-related workshop and conference.
“LSAMP also helped support the college’s efforts in hiring competent math/science tutors as well as science lab aids,” Keaton added.
NMC President Carmen Fernandez appreciated the positive impact that the LSAMP program has made at the college.
“We will continue to pursue regional partnerships like these that increase the opportunities for NMC students,” Fernandez said in her statement to Variety.
The LSAMP program is aimed at increasing the quality and quantity of under-represented minority students majoring in and successfully completing science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduate degree programs, Keaton said.
Its goal, he added, is to increase the number of under-represented minority students interested in, academically qualified for, and matriculated into programs of graduate study.
The program awards $40,500 per year for two years to LSAMP graduate students, he said.
The program also provides grants to many multi-institution collaborative efforts.
The program is expanding its partnership activities by recruiting well-qualified, under-represented community college students into STEM degree programs within the “Islands of Opportunity Alliance” of universities and colleges, Keaton said.
The recent Summit, which was hosted by the University of Hawaii at Hilo and the University of Hawaii at Manoa from Feb. 18 to 20, gave Pacific region schools a chance to network with other LSAMP partners and invited guests from the University of Hawaii system.
