STEM PUSH was started to increase participation of Black, LatinX and Indigenous students in undergraduate STEM majors by addressing the high school to college STEM access barrier.
We saw high achieving, minoritized students who had participated in our Pre-College STEM programs (PCSPs) denied admission into undergraduate STEM programs. We knew that the skills, abilities and habits of mind that were cultivated and evident in our PCSPs were not being factored into admissions decisions in a systemic way.
In 2019, a group of us from the University of Pittsburgh and the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES) teamed up to change this broken system and STEM PUSH was formed.
STEM PUSH is a research project, funded by the National Science Foundation as one of its INCLUDES Alliances with an aim to re-invent the relationship between PCSPs and HigherED Admissions.
This inaugural newsletter will provide introduction to this work with deeper dives in our next issues.
Welcome to STEM PUSH!