MCC Awarded $25,000 Grant from Aurora Foundation to Support Women in STEM
MANCHESTER, Conn. (August 31, 2016) – Manchester Community College was awarded $25,000 by the Aurora Women and Girls Foundation to fund a special initiative for female students interested in the sciences, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
The grant funding is specially targeted to support students in the college’s successful Foundations in Retention, Success and Transition (FIRST) program for first-year and new students.
MCC’s Women in STEM initiative, known as WiSTEM, will help increase persistence and graduation rates for women pursuing degrees and will prepare them for STEM careers, according to Sharale W. Golding, MCC STEM division director.
“The WiSTEM initiative will help these women prepare for the rigors of college-level science, with the goal of improved retention rates, improved college-completion rates, high participation rates and high rates of satisfaction,” Golding said.
The key components of the initiative include coordinated coursework and STEM topics, co-curricular seminars covering academic and non-cognitive skills for student success and exploration, guest speakers, visits to baccalaureate institutions and STEM workplaces, and dedicated advisors and interventions for at-risk students.
With the national push to recruit more K-12 girls to aspire to careers in technical and science fields, incorporating the WiSTEM initiative into the FIRST program provides interested students with a distinct advantage.
The $25,000 will be dispersed in two installments. The first will support recruitment of a cohort of 24 women. The second installment will help fund the cohort’s activities during the Spring 2017 semester.
About the Aurora Foundation: Aurora is the only foundation exclusively focused on the needs of women and girls in Greater Hartford, and it is the only free-standing foundation in Connecticut focused solely on supporting groups that serve women and girls. The foundation’s community grant-making program has awarded $400,000 to more than 44 organizations and directly impacted more than 3,500 women and girls in Greater Hartford.
