Big Bend's STEM grant boosts options
A $4.8 million STEM grant Big Bend Community College was awarded helps secure students’ futures. STEM, short for science, technology, engineering and math, is a field that offers higher wages to workers, according to a 2016 salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Engineering saw the highest annual salary of $64,891. The other salaries surveyed, including some non-STEM fields, are as follows: computer science, $61,321, math and sciences, $55,087, business, $52,236, agriculture and natural resources, $48,729, healthcare, $48,712, communications, $47,047, social sciences, $46,585, humanities, $46,065, and education, $34,891. The numbers clearly show it pays to go into a STEM-related field.
At Big Bend, the five-year “Transforming STEM Pathways” grant includes about $2 million for new equipment, and about $345,000 to start a permanent “peer advocate coach” program, according to a Oct. 25 Columbia Basin Herald article.
The grant will fund the development of two new transferable degree programs in computer science and manufacturing technology.
Locally, the grant has the relevance to support the manufacturing and technology communities, two fields that have a need for workers with a different level of qualifications and skills.
Providing training locally benefits the community at large, as well as students who may consider leaving Grant County for better paying jobs. Businesses are provided with a better trained workforce and selection of employees, and students are provided with more options for their careers, futures and families. If a student must remain in Grant County before making the leap to a metropolitan area, he or she can gain experience and skills at home. Taking an unchallenging job may be less likely.
The STEM grant is targeted for institutions like Big Bend with a 43 percent Hispanic population in the school’s service area. Low income students are also targeted. According to Big Bend’s fall 2015 headcount for students, 36 percent are Hispanic, 76 percent are first generation students and 46 percent are low income.
“Students entering professional/technical programs are even more disadvantaged: 82 percent first generation (96 Hispanic first generation), 57 percent low income (65 percent Hispanic low income) and nearly all (94 percent) academically underprepared in math (96 percent Hispanic math underpreparation),” according to the executive summary for the grant application.
Big Bend has done well in terms of grant success during the last eight years. During that time, the college has received a total of $21.7 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education. A previous grant helped fund the implementation of a developmental math course as part of the Emporium math model. The model increased student success from less than 50 percent to nearly 80 percent.
We’re excited to see how the implementation of Big Bend’s newest grant pans out. If past improvements are an indicator of success, more good news should be on the horizon.
— Editorial Board