New Noyce Scholarships Available for STEM Majors to Teach in Philadelphia Schools
Bryn Mawr College Professor of Mathematics Victor Donnay, founding director of the Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership (PRNP), announced that six partner institutions of the PRNP have been awarded a $1.45 million National Science Foundation five year collaborative grant to recruit, prepare, and retain STEM teachers.
The lead institution on this project is Saint Joseph’s University. Tanya Berezovski is the Principal Investigator (PI). The Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership Scholarship program partners, in addition to Saint Joseph’s University, include Arcadia University (Augusto Macalalag, Co-PI), Â鶹AV (Victor Donnay, Co-PI), Community College of Philadelphia (Sandra Spicer-Sharp, Senior Personnel), La Salle University (Greer Richardson, Co-PI), and Temple University, (Susan Varnum, Co-PI).
The application process for both the scholarship and internship opened Dec. 1, 2018. The deadline for round one applications is March 1, 2019. Go to the website for details.
The project aims to recruit 55 new STEM teachers, 11 from each of the partner institutions, in the next five years with the goals of:
- increasing the number of STEM majors that enter and remain in teaching in high-need schools in the Philadelphia region,
- increasing the social capital of Noyce program participants at all levels,
- increasing Noyce teachers’ understanding of Culturally Responsive Teaching practices,
- increasing Noyce teachers’ knowledge of Education for Sustainability content and pedagogical practices.
In addition to offering up to $15,000 scholarships to students during their certification year, the program will support its scholars through their active and continuous engagement in a cohort-based learning community during the pre-service year and for the first two years of their in-service teaching. Scholars will receive mentor support and opportunities for professional development. In exchange for this one year of scholarship support, recipients commit to teaching for at least two years in a high-needs school district. The project will also financially support 14 student interns from Community College of Philadelphia who are interested in exploring a career in STEM teaching through a summer program in which they will learn about and have the opportunity to practice STEM content pedagogy.
The Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership Scholarship program is an initiative of the Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership (PRNP) which in addition to the above six institutions also includes Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, West Chester University and the Philadelphia Education Fund. Over the past eight years, PRNP has received several grants from the National Science Foundation to support STEM teacher preparation and development. They received an initial two-year $300,000 grant (2011-14) to build the capacity of the Noyce programs in the region and a second grant (2014-16) to develop and pilot a comprehensive new teacher support program for Noyce Scholars.
Taken together, these programs represent more than 200 math and science pre-service, novice, early career and master teachers, a valuable resource for school districts in the Philadelphia area. In 2016, PRNP received its third NSF grant focused on supporting the School District of Philadelphia’s GreenFutures Sustainability Plan by developing a cadre of teacher leaders dedicated to integrating Education for Sustainability into their curriculum.
To find out more about the PRNP, visit or contact Professor Donnay.