Helping MET freshmen succeed in science
Carla Romney, program chair of MET’s Science and Engineering Program, is the PI on MET’s largest grant ever.
Metropolitan College has received the largest grant in its history: a five-year, $500,000 award from the National Science Foundation. Carla Romney, program chair of the MET Science and Engineering Program (SEP) and a research assistant professor of biochemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine, is the author of the proposal.
Beginning next fall, MET will use the award to provide partial scholarships each year for 25 freshmen enrolled in SEP, which has a full-time undergraduate curriculum. The scholarships, based on both academic merit and financial need, will continue beyond freshman year with University financing.
“This is an opportunity for us to give students financial support so that they don’t have to undertake employment and can instead concentrate on their studies,” says Romney. “If the students don’t make it through the beginning part of the program, they don’t make it at all in science and engineering.”
Romney, the principal investigator, and other colleagues compiled data revealing that many SEP students pursue jobs or ROTC scholarships as a means of financing their undergraduate education. These commitments, according to Romney, often have a negative effect on their academics. “If we can make it so that those students are more academically successful in their first year, it will increase the likelihood that they will ultimately graduate with a degree in science and engineering,” she says.
The proportion of college students pursuing engineering and technology degrees has suffered a decline in the last decade, dipping from 32 percent to 27 percent, according to Jay Halfond, dean of MET. “Our nation depends upon having a cohort of students who are well-trained in science and engineering,” Romney says. “The government sees promoting science and engineering as a national priority.”