Overview

The project entitled: “MSEIP: Program of Excellence in STEM (PE-STEM)” is currently hosted at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and seeks to improve the recruitment, retention, and graduation success of high students and rising college freshman in STEM disciplines. 

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The initial funding of PE-STEM began in Fall of 2013, and was funded by the US Department of Education's Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP) solicitation.  The initial funding cycle was 3 years, and focused on students from 11th grade through their freshman year of college. Because of successes gained in the first installation, PE-STEM was renewed for an additional 3-year cycle, and expanded to include rising 9th and 10th grade students interested in STEM areas.

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In 2019, the PE-STEM program was awarded an additional Supplemental award, titled "Capacity Competitiveness Enhancement Model (CCEM)".  The CCEM award is designed to improve the capacity of research at Florida A&M University (FAMU) within STEM disciplines.  Participating students (5 total) spent 10 weeks during Summer of 2019 working at 3 national companies and laboratories with a STEM research focus - Eli Lilly, AbbVie and Oak Ridge National Labs.  Upon completion, the students were able to continue their research on the campus of FAMU under the direction of the three PIs.  The engineering students focused on water quality treatment and remediation from anthropogenic sources of contamination in both field and laboratory settings. The science students focused on the utilization and optimization of applied research relating chemistry to interdisciplinary research needs. The technology student focused on Business Analytics/Big Data, more specifically utilizing analytics and/or data science research approaches.  These students were selected to present this research at the MSEIP Graduate Student Conference in October, 2019.

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Also in 2019, PE-STEM was awarded with 3 additional grant programs - PE-STEM Enrichment, PE-STEM Environmental Education, and PE-STEM Environmental Research.  PE-STEM Enrichment is a continuing version of the initial PE-STEM programs, with additional focus on more focused mentoring and high school teacher involvement.  PE-STEM Environmental Education will function similar to PE-STEM Enrichment, but will have a focus on Environmental Science content.  PE-STEM Environmental Research services undergraduate and graduate students, and centers on involving these students in impactful research projects with a focus on environmental science and sustainability.  The PE-STEM staff is excited to begin these projects during the Summer of 2020.