$1 Million Grant Funds Technology and Engineering Education in Eastern Iowa
posted: Nov. 8, 2004

A $1 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation will help fund initiatives to increase enrollment and graduation rates in math, science and engineering programs at St. Ambrose University and community colleges within the Eastern Iowa Community College District.

The National Science Foundation facilitates cooperative agreements between two-year and four-year programs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and disciplines that have a strong technological foundation. The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program, or STEP program, specifically targets underrepresented populations, such as minorities and women, through scholarships, mentoring, a summer science camp and other activities.

“This project is the ideal combination of our two institutions’ strengths,” says SAU President Ed Rogalski. “Responding to local employers’ needs by creating programs to meet identified regional shortages is central to the missions of both SAU and EICCD.”

The program’s purpose is to encourage more local students to enroll and complete two- and four-year degrees to meet the region’s need for people with more technological training. Locally, companies have a critical need for engineers and technicians. In a survey of 83 companies conducted by EICCD with the cooperation of area economic development groups, it was determined that by 2006 more than 6,000 new and replacement employees will be needed in advanced manufacturing, information technology and life sciences, the majority of which will require advanced training beyond a high school diploma.

“Many companies desire professionals who are local and educated here because of high turnover rates among employees recruited from other parts of the country,” says Dr. Patricia Keir, EICCD chancellor. “All EICCD students and about one-fourth of first-year industrial engineering students at St. Ambrose come from the Quad City area.”

The STEP program also removes two major obstacles that potential engineering students encounter: a lack of finances and of knowledge about educational opportunities in math, science and engineering. Through the grant program, students can qualify for scholarships of as much as $3,000 that are renewable each year.

The STEP program’s goal is to increase enrollment in engineering by 20-30 new students at SAU and EICCD each year. Over the next five years, the program anticipates graduating 118 additional bachelor’s degree educated engineers and associate’s degree educated technicians qualified for positions in local industry or ready to enter graduate programs. Even after the grant concludes, 70 more students are expected to graduate, due in large part to the assistance of this program.

The model used to win the STEP grant was similar to one used in 2001 for a National Science Foundation Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship grant for SAU’s computer science programs. As a result, St. Ambrose increased enrollment in computer science majors by 23 percent, and retention among CSEMS recipients rose from 48 percent to 95 percent.

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