A strong start to the STEM Magnet Program

It seems that everywhere you turn, you hear about the importance of STEM education — that’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

We have good news about our STEM Magnet Program at Bloomsburg University. The program for high school juniors has been so successful that we have started planning for our second year — the 2014-2015 academic year.  We met over the past week with our current business and school district partners, including Berwick, Bloomsburg and Central Columbia school districts and PPL, Merck, Geisinger and others. I am happy to report that we will have two cohorts of students for the next academic year — one focused upon Engineering and one focused upon the Health Sciences.

Why is this program so important? It gives high-achieving rural high school students academic opportunities that parallel those of students from metropolitan areas. It provides a pipeline to outstanding career opportunities with area employers, who support the program financially and through mentorships. And these students will have 30 college credits by the time they graduate from high school.

We started with 20 students in fall 2014. That’s just the beginning!

— Elizabeth K. Mauch, Dean