NCSSM's outreach efforts will continue to grow thanks to recent grants in support of NCSSM Connect and Step Up to STEM.
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Outreach programs receive transformational grants from Burroughs Wellcome Fund and Anonymous Trust
December 17, 2024
Step Up to STEM and NCSSM Connect, two of NCSSM’s signature STEM outreach programs, were recently awarded almost $1 million in grants from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and Anonymous Trust. The funds will be used to support and expand the Step Up to STEM summer program designed for underrepresented students, and NCSSM Connect distance education courses so that both can reach more students throughout Eastern and Southeastern North Carolina.
Beginning summer 2025, the three-year, $180,000 BWF grant will help provide programming for six cohorts of students (one each of rising ninth- and 10th-graders over three years for a total of 150 students) from Eastern North Carolina who are participating in NCSSM’s Step Up to STEM program at Elizabeth City State University.
Celia Bansah, from Winterville, completed the Step Up to STEM program at ECSU this past summer.
“This program has been one of the best experiences in my life overall,” she said. “If there’s anybody else who is ever interested in this program, they should apply and try to get in because it can change your life for the better,” she added.” It definitely had a positive impact on mine.”
Activities include a one-week, hands-on summer program at ECSU, academic-year engagement in an interdisciplinary science, applied science, and mathematics curriculum through NCSSM Connect (the school’s interactive video course platform), and other year-round activities including quarterly virtual and/or in-person enrichment sessions focusing on study skills, standardized test-taking, career exploration, and college preparation. All activities are designed to help students develop skills in scientific inquiry, data analysis, critical thinking, and collaboration.
BWF was one of Step Up to STEM’s founding funders in 2013, when the program was offered only on NCSSM’s Durham campus. Since then, the grantmaking organization based in the Research Triangle Park has continued to support the program and its expansion to ECSU in recent years. To date, more than 600 students from all over North Carolina have participated in the program across both campuses.
Soon after receiving the BWF grant, NCSSM administrators were notified of a three-year, $735,000 award from Raleigh-based Anonymous Trust to provide additional support of Step Up to STEM as a whole, as well as expand the program to UNC-Pembroke in the sandhills regions of North Carolina. Programming at UNC-P will function much the same as at Durham and ECSU and will serve up to 180 students over the life of the grant. As part of SUTS programming, a portion of the funds will be used to deliver custom NCSSM Connect courses for students in Robeson, Scotland, Hoke, and Columbus counties.
With the addition of the UNC-P site, NCSSM will soon have a physical Step Up to STEM presence in central, eastern, and southeastern North Carolina that will serve nearly 200 students a year. Long-range plans call for establishing a Step Up to STEM site in Western North Carolina as well.
“This level of support is tremendous,” says Jamie Lathan, NCSSM’s Vice Chancellor for Extended Learning. “It was our dream years ago when Step Up to STEM was founded that one day we might reach students throughout North Carolina in ways that made it easier for them to access high-quality STEM programming in or near their home communities. With these grants, we’re really close to fully realizing that dream. We couldn’t be more grateful for the support we are receiving from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Anonymous Trust.”
