A $5 million grant will enable 220 low-income students to pursue a Master’s degree in STEM.
Jackson State University, Prairie View A&M University, Rice University and Texas Southern University have been awarded a grant of almost $5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF grant, Improving Access to Career and Educational Development (I-ACED), will support low-income students wishing to complete a master’s degree in engineering, computer science, mathematics or data science. Within those domains, students will focus on biotechnology, sustainability and resilience, or digital twinning.
The focus of the scholarships will be to help retain high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The program is expected to support 220 students across the four institutions.
“This grant will enable academically talented, low-income students to pursue and complete master’s degrees in computer science, mathematics and other STEM disciplines,” said Azime Saydam, interim dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at Texas Southern.
The institutions will also test a new Flexible Internships-Research-Education (FIRE) educational model. The hallmark of this model is that the graduate program will integrate research, internships and industry collaboration. Along these lines, the student project component will be in partnership with an Engineering Research and Development Center, or a major employer specializing in a related field.
“I-ACED is designed to help students gain more from their graduate experience through industry internships, research experiences, mentoring and professional development, all while reducing the cost of a master’s program,” explains Matthew Wettergreen, who is the lead investigator for the project at Rice University.
“While scholarships may remove the financial burden of graduate education, we’ve long recognized at PVAMU that scholarships aren’t enough to guarantee success for low-income or minority students,” said Sherri Frizell, a computer science professor at Prairie View A&M. “We believe this unique partnership will allow us to collectively build a program that supports the students’ successful matriculation through the graduate programs and into the workforce.”
Magesh Rajan, the vice president of the Division of Research & Innovation at Prairie View, further noted that they hope that the experience students receive in research and development may inspire some to pursue a Ph.D. in their field.
I-ACED’s focus on master’s students is unique. “Many programs support undergraduates or doctoral students, while master’s students are often overlooked,” explains Yvette Pearson, who led the grant effort. “This program intentionally highlights the cutting-edge research at our partner institutions. While many projects build their research studies around the students themselves, our research component focuses on the structure, the ecosystem we have created for I-ACED.”
I-ACED includes a research component to examine the success of bringing together stakeholders from many different organizations, all with different cultures. The project is utilizing a “team of teams” approach. Such an approach requires teams from different backgrounds to organize around common goals. This organizational structure replaces traditional hierarchies, promoting decentralized autonomy, meritocracy and partnership instead.
“Master’s programs are most rewarding when students can leverage the experiences to launch into their next career steps,” Wettergreen said. “We expect this program to produce graduates who have added value beyond their core coursework in industry readiness and professional skills.”
