VT College of Science Magazine Fall 2009 | Page 10

ISSUE NO. 7 FALL 2009

C O L L E G E

O F

S C I E N C E

M A G A Z I N E

8

VT-STEM HELPS INSPIRE
THE NEXT GENERATION OF
SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS
By Liz Crumbley

“Our national economic prosperity and security
require that we remain a world leader in science
and technology. Precollege education in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) is the foundation of that leadership
and must be one of our highest priorities as
a nation.”

Steven C. Beering, chairman of the National Science
Board in a letter to newly elected President Barack
Obama, January 2009.

While STEM is championed by national science and political leaders, it also has become an
educational tool at Virginia Tech.
Faculty members in the College of Science currently hold more than $1.2 million in STEM
education grants from the National Science Foundation. The college continues to support
scholarship in the area of STEM education, with particular emphasis on serving underrepresented and financially needy students.
“VT-STEM is a collaborative project,” said Llyn Sharp, coordinator of Geosciences Outreach in
the College of Science. Sharp and Mike Rosenzweig, a research scientist in the Department
of Biological Sciences and director of the Science Outreach Program, served as co-coordinators of VT-STEM for the 2008-09 academic year.
Nearly a decade ago, John Dooley, then associate provost for outreach and