Reflections Magazine Issue #87 - Fall 2018 | Page 8

Campus News
SHU Receives National Grants
National Science Foundation Scholarship Grant
Siena Heights University was awarded a five-year grant
totaling $641,751 from the National Science Foundation as part
of the Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics (S-STEM) program. Only five S-STEM grants
have been awarded to universities in Michigan with start dates
in 2018. Siena Heights was the only Michigan private univer-
sity to be awarded this prestigious grant.
The project is entitled Siena Heights: Applying Psychologi-
cal Constructs and Student Supports to Improve the Education
of Students in STEM (SHAPE STEM). This project will award
tuition scholarships totaling $400,000 over 5 years to 20 aca-
demically talented students from low-income households who
wish to major in biology, chemistry or environmental science
at Siena Heights.
The program will especially target students with interests in
non-medical STEM careers, and there is additional participant
support to fund faculty-mentored student research projects
and internships.
“We are extremely pleased to receive this grant and would
like to thank all who were involved in this process,” said
SHU President Sister Peg Albert, OP, Ph.D. “To be the only
private institution in Michigan to receive this grant in 2018
is quite an honor. We look forward to implementing this grant
and educating future leaders in the STEM field. And we are
excited to show what impact the ‘Siena Effect’ can have on
these students.”
The grant identifies and addresses many of the barriers
to success experienced by low-income and first-generation
college students majoring in STEM disciplines. SHAPE STEM
scholars in the program will study in living and learning com-
munities, receive extensive faculty mentoring, participate in
group research, and attend special SHAPE STEM seminars
presented by experts in STEM fields.
The Siena Heights faculty grant team included Drs. Jun
Tsuji (principal investigator), Heather Moody, Steve Wathen,
Jeffrey Lindstrom and Patricia Rousselo and proposed a variety
of recruitment and support services based upon the Unified
Learning Model (ULM). They plan to evaluate the impact of
these various strategies and services on student recruitment,
persistence, graduation and career placement.
“This NSF support will help Siena Heights University
recruit and educate the talented student scholars who will
be able to address the environmental challenges related to
sustainable food production, clean water, soil chemistry,
air quality, chemical recycling, biodiversity and other ecologi-
cal concerns that impact our social well-being and national
8 | Reflections Fall ’18
security,” said Dr. Tsuji, chair of SHU’s Computing, Mathemat-
ics and Sciences Division (above). “We believe that many of
the ULM-based motivational supports will make a measurable
and significant improvement in the success of students in dif-
ficult STEM disciplines. By disseminating our findings widely,
we hope that these kinds of strategies and supports may be
adapted and utilized by other higher educational institutions
to improve STEM education across the nation.”
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
In May 2018, Siena Heights University was awarded a
$35,000 planning grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities as part of the NEH Connections grant program.
The project is entitled “Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
(PPE): Creating a new minor/certificate program at Siena
Heights University.”
Siena Heights was one of only 15 universities nationwide
and the only university in Michigan awarded this grant. This
funding will support the development of a new curricular path-
way for students with interests in political theory, political
philosophy and economic theory.
“The program supported by this funding seeks to prepare
our student scholars with a more holistic approach to political
or economic problems with added emphasis on ethical and
historical considerations,” said SHU Assistant Professor of Phi-
losophy Dr. Jennifer Kling, the project’s principal investigator.
The project team consists of SHU core faculty in economics
(Dr. Rubin Luniku), philosophy (Dr. Kling) and political sci-
ence (Dr. Eric Kos), as well as three faculty experts from
across the nation and SHU staff and administration. u