Federal grant will continue Regional Center for Math and Science at UW-Green Bay

GREEN BAY — A four-year federal grant award of $1.2 million will assure that high school students will continue learning at the Regional Center for Math and Science on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.

The continuation grant, awarded recently through the Department of Education’s Federal TRIO Programs, will allow the program to run through at least 2013.

The Regional Center for Math and Science serves low-income first-generation students interested in majoring in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. In its 17 years of operation at UW-Green Bay, the center has served more than 600 students from around the Midwest. Of those, 92 percent have gone on to college and 76 percent have graduated from college, about three-times the expected rate for students from the demographic served by the program. Also, 69 percent of the Regional Center for Math and Science program participants graduate from college with degrees in science, technology, engineering or math fields.

“The Regional Center for Math and Science program is an investment in our youth,” says Program Director Michael Casbourne. “It gives help to students who wish to develop their skills, motivation and knowledge needed to achieve their goals and dreams of continuing on to higher education.

“This federal grant will ensure the center at UW-Green Bay will continue connecting with so many students so their goals and dreams can be reached.”

The Regional Center for Math and Science is a federally funded, six-week residential pre-college program designed to enrich and enhance high school students’ understanding of math, science and the nature of scientific research. Educators at the center work with students for two summers at UW-Green Bay, and stay connected throughout their last two years in high school.

The center uses technology to advise, tutor, academically develop and network with students. It also coordinates college campus visits for students, opportunities for students to hear guest lecturers on college campuses, and student participation in leadership and academic development conferences and workshops.

The Regional Center for Math and Science at UW-Green Bay focuses its emphasis on health sciences. Careers in medicine, nursing, physical therapy, medical research and others are explored.

Educators at the center include UW-Green Bay faculty and area schoolteachers. Students come to UW-Green Bay from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio. They are either from low-income families, or would potentially be first-generation college students.

More about the Regional Center for Math and Science can be found online at http://www.uwgb.edu/rcms/.

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