A $1.5 million National Science Foundation award will help transform more than 50 UC Riverside students into the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and math teachers.

The Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship is building a pipeline to move talented undergraduate STEM students through UCR’s teaching credential programs and into nearby school districts. The award program addresses the critical need for highly effective middle and high school STEM teachers.

“I’m thrilled this grant will fund a new generation of STEM teachers in the Inland Empire where they’re really needed,” said School of Education Dean Thomas Smith.

The grant covers tuition and fees for 53 students working toward their credentials. It will also pay for an additional 10 students’ senior year of college, and for the apprenticeships they complete in nearby Val Verde Unified School District.

An initial group of students from the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering and the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will begin moving through this program in June.

The colleges are working in partnership with CalTeach, a facet of UC’s Science and Math Initiative. CalTeach-SMI’s program director is Leslie Bushong. Smith and chemistry professor Jack Eichler serve as faculty co-directors. Program funding continues through June 2024.