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Contact: Bruce Larson, WWU Professor of Secondary Education, (360) 650-3702, or George Nelson, WWU director of Science, Math, and Technology Education, at (360) 650-3637.

BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University has been awarded a five-year, $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program to encourage talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and professionals to become middle- and high-school mathematics and science teachers.

The grant provides scholarships and stipends for undergraduate STEM majors who want to become teachers, and for professionals with science or mathematics degrees who are interested in coming to WWU to receive their teaching certificate.

Bruce Larson, WWU Professor of Secondary Education and the primary investigator and administrator for the Noyce grant, said WWU would use the grant funds to provide 61 $10,000 scholarships to aspiring teachers from the WWU student body and to qualified private-sector professionals who are interested in making a career change to become science or mathematics teachers.

“Someone at Boeing in Everett, for example, or at a local engineering firm here in Bellingham who has always wanted to teach and bring their science or mathematics knowledge, expertise and experience into the classroom would be a perfect fit for one of these scholarships,” he said.

Noyce grant funding will also be used to pay stipends for approximately 60 first- and second-year WWU students who have expressed an interest in a STEM degree area to serve as summer interns in Whatcom County’s Mount Baker or Meridian school districts, working with summer-school students.

Noyce scholarships also stipulate that for every year a student accepts one of the scholarships, they must commit to teaching science or mathematics in a high-need school district for two years.

George “Pinky” Nelson, director of WWU’s Science Math and Technology Education (SMATE) program and co-director of the grant, said, “What we hope to do with this grant is attract the best possible people out there into becoming science and mathematics teachers by offering to help support their education – whether they are incoming students or professionals still working in their areas of expertise.”

Stephanie Salzman, dean of WWU’s Woodring College of Education, agreed with Nelson, saying, “With this funding, WWU will be able to increase our production of highly qualified math and science teachers so critically needed by the state of Washington.”

For more information on WWU’s Noyce grant, contact Larson at (360) 650-3702 or bruce.larson@wwu.edu.

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