Salt Lake Community College recently received at $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Craig Caldwell, Dean of the School of Science, Math and Engineering at SLCC, says that they have two uses for the money.
The first use for the grant is to help students that they are calling “near completers.”
This group of students are within 20 credits of completing a math or science degree but have stopped attending classes. The school plans to find these students and give them financial aid to help them achieve their degree.
Determining which students are eligible for the program has been difficult.
“We can go online and find out how many credits they have, however we do not know what the credits are for, making it hard to tell how close a student came to earning their degree,” Caldwell says.
SLCC has had to use DegreeWorks software in a new way to generate a list of students that are eligible for the scholarships.
Of the 40 students found to be eligible for financial aid, the school plans to narrow the list down to around 15 students.
Grant money will also go towards the TRiO STEM program, which helps low-income first-generation college students receive financial aid.
Students are required to participate in an undergraduate research program and work with a faculty member on a special project to present at the annual Science, Math and Engineering Symposium.
The next symposium will take place April 5, 2016. Students are expected to submit proposals by Nov. 10.
