ONEONTA, N.Y. — The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence 3 initiative has awarded a $500,000 grant to Hartwick College. The college said it will use the grant to increase its capacity for providing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) opportunities that promote success for all students, especially those in historically excluded groups. Hartwick […]
ONEONTA, N.Y. — The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence 3 initiative has awarded a $500,000 grant to Hartwick College.
The college said it will use the grant to increase its capacity for providing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) opportunities that promote success for all students, especially those in historically excluded groups. Hartwick noted it will allocate the funding to strengthen student belonging by amplifying student voices and building support for instructors to shift to practices and policies that create equitable learning environments for all students.
Specific initiatives include empowering student-led STEM clubs to promote inclusivity, creating a student advisory panel to provide input and collaborate on the creation of class and laboratory activities and assignments, building a program to develop STEM peer mentors for students in introductory STEM courses, professional development for faculty to modify introductory science curricula and modes of instruction, and development of new courses on inclusivity in science. The initiatives will inform the college’s planning to create the infrastructure necessary to provide continuous support and assessment of inclusive instruction and student engagement.
Seven learning community clusters (LCC) were selected for the grant, with about 15 institutions in each cluster. Hartwick belongs to LCC3, which aims to shift institutions from deficit- to achievement-oriented thinking and practices through continuing education, inclusive curricula, student empowerment, inclusive collaboration, and broader approaches to institutional transformation. LCC3 will use $600,000 from HHMI to build inclusive collaboration among institutional teams, which will provide the Hartwick team critical support for their work.
Hartwick’s Inclusive Excellence 3 team includes faculty from the biology, chemistry, math, and physics departments as well as representatives from the offices of college advancement and academic affairs.
HHMI promotes leadership in science education through its institutional grants program, awarded through peer-reviewed competitions that highlight issues in science education, support science faculty in addressing these problems, and encourage institutions to become leaders in science-education excellence.
Hartwick College offers 35 bachelor’s degrees, two master’s degrees in the sciences, and a graduate certificate in nursing education.