$1 million grant will help low-income Clark College students pursue STEM degrees

As many as 48 high-achieving, low-income students will get financial help toward completing degrees in engineering or computer science at Clark College, thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The grant award was announced Thursday by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

“We know that in Washington alone, we will have a shortage of 60,000 STEM workers by 2026,” Cantwell said in a statement. “Today’s award will help low-income engineering and computer science undergraduates at Clark College receive the scholarships, mentorship, and critical hands-on learning opportunities they need to become part of the STEM workforce of tomorrow.”

Across six years, the grant will provide scholarships for up to three years for students pursuing associate degrees in engineering or computer science. They will also receive intensive faculty mentoring and project-based learning with Southwest Washington companies.

The grant aims to improve the recruitment, retention and success among undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, and to build a sustainable education model that can be used at other community colleges.

“Clark College is pleased to be a recipient of this NSF grant that will empower us to create an equity-centered sustainable workforce pathway for our low-income engineering and computer science students,” Clark College President Karin Edwards said. “We are dedicated to training our local workforce to meet industry needs both now and in the future.”

Washington has the second-highest concentration of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs in the nation, according to Cantwell — adding 6,000 new computer-science related jobs annually — but the state only grants about half as that many bachelor’s degrees in relevant fields.

Cantwell, chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, was a lead negotiator on the CHIPS & Science Act of 2022, which authorized $13 billion in STEM education funding at the National Science Foundation. That’s a tripling of the foundation’s STEM education budget across five years, Cantwell’s office said.