Saint Vincent College has received a grant of nearly $500,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) to increase the number of students who enroll and successfully graduate in the fields of biochemistry, bioinformatics, biology and biotechnology by providing scholarship assistance and ongoing academic support.

The principal investigator for the project is Br. Norman W. Hipps, O.S.B., executive vice president, professor of mathematics, and dean of the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computing, and the co-principal investigator is Dr. Mandy Raab, director of biotechnology.

“Through the next five years, the project will provide 60 scholarships to students interested in pursuing a degree in the biosciences,” Br. Norman said. “We are particularly interested in attracting minority students and other traditionally under-represented students and creating an environment where they will complete these challenging programs successfully. Students with degrees in these areas are in great demand by graduate programs and a wide range of organizations involved in research, government service, law, finance, education, health care and other areas of scientific development.”

“Saint Vincent College is very proud to receive this award which is part of a national effort to increase the number of students who pursue degrees in mathematics and science,” Br. Norman added. “We plan to double the number of students enrolled in these interdisciplinary majors from 30 to 60 by 2015. Saint Vincent has a serious commitment to develop the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computing into a leading science educational program among liberal arts colleges in the United States. Other initiatives currently underway at the Boyer School include the construction of the Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion, the expansion of an award-winning Environmental Educational Program at the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve, and its leadership role in the Math and Science Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania.”

In addition to the scholarship support provided by the NSF grant, the College will add funds to create six full scholarships per year (24 after four years) made possible by a gift to the Archabbot Douglas Nowicki Minority Scholarship Fund for the education of minorities.

“We have identified several courses that prevent some students from completing these majors,” Br. Norman continued, “including cell biology, organic chemistry and introductory courses in biology, chemistry and computer programming. The NSF grant will enable us to involve upperclassmen – junior and seniors -- who have successfully completed these courses to work with freshmen and sophomores in a complementary learning program. This collaboration will take place in some interesting and comfortable spaces in the new Science Pavilion as well as off campus at other educational facilities. We will be applying successful techniques that have been developed by other colleges and universities utilizing collaborative groups to work on challenging and demanding problems so that at-risk students will become a cohesive and productive group that naturally develop the capacity to work together and advance in their study.”

Br. Norman reported that Saint Vincent was honored to be selected to participate in the NSF program. “This STEP award is one of only 22 awards made nationally in 2009,” he said. “One hundred and eighty-six proposals were submitted to this program, resulting in a funding rate of only 11.8%.”

Saint Vincent currently has two other grants supported by NSF – Dr. Bruce Bethke’s project for improving quantitative literacy across the natural science curriculum through digital imaging technology, and Dr. Caryl Fish’s using inquiry-based strategies to enhance student understanding of chromatography and mass spectral concepts. NSF is an independent U.S. government agency responsible for promoting science and engineering through research programs and education projects.

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Photo: Dr. Bruce Bethke, associate professor of biology, reviews the complementary learning program that is part of the NSF project designed to help Saint Vincent College freshmen and sophomores complete challenging science courses successfully with upperclassmen who have already the taken the courses, from left, Elizabeth Fox, a senior biology major, Shane Sweeney, a senior biology major, and Sarah Anderson, a junior bioinformatics/computer science major.

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