Farmingdale State College has received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support a mentorship program that will help recruit minority Ph.D. students in STEM to the College in the hopes of hiring them as full-time faculty.
Dr. Erwin CabreraThe program is in line with SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson’s PRODI-G (Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth) initiative, which focuses on creating more diverse faculties across all SUNY campuses.
Under the five-year grant, Farmingdale will collaborate with Suffolk County Community College and Stony Brook University for the program. Stony Brook will be the feeder institution for Ph.D. STEM students.
The grant was made possible by a proposal written by Dr. Erwin Cabrera, associate director of Farmindale’s Research Aligned Mentorship Program.
The program, according to NSF officials, focuses on “career development for historically underrepresented minority doctoral degree students in STEM, who successfully transition into early career STEM faculty positions at predominately undergraduate institutions.”
“Through our program, the Stony Brook doctoral students that will be hosted by our STEM departments will get the experience of being integrated into the academic environment, interacting with the faculty on campus, and most importantly, our students,” Cabrera said. “The average underrepresented minority undergraduate student in the United States does not see themselves reflected in the faculty at their respective institutions. It is important that as one of the fastest-growing public colleges in the country, we at Farmingdale take charge in making a change.”
