YORK COLLEGE-HOSTED STEM PROGRAM CONTINUES TO PIQUE STUDENTS INTEREST IN STEM DISCIPLINES AND BUILDING STEM LEARNING ECOSYSTEMS

Allowing urban students (K9-12) effective access to NASA STEM education-related resources is becoming a formidable pathway to augment outreach initiatives of the MUREP Aerospace Academy (MAA), housed in York College (City University of New York). The free NASA program aims at increasing STEM awareness, training, engaging, and motivating underserved students from the community. Grade-specific representative STEM lessons covering fundamental mathematics, science, engineering design, python-based programming language, cybersecurity, rocketry, aerodynamics, earth and space, science literacy and effective communication skills were disseminated through interactive, hands-on and experiential learning environments. MAA succeeded the previous NASA program known as the Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA). Between SEMAA and MAA, York has served over 30,000 students since its inception in 1999. In terms of demographic distribution, African American students always led the bulk of the attending students, followed by Asian and Hispanic representations. Many students who participated in the program went on to complete STEM majors, several who earned PhDs in STEM fields. A notable aspect of the program is the involvement of the parents and caregivers through the Family Focus Group (FFG). FFG meets regularly during the operation of the program and acts as a catalyst to conveying STEM resources to the community, making Earth and space science compelling for diverse participants. The recently concluded summer 2023 in-person session ended with over 200 enrollments. This is remarkable, and testifies to the notion that students’ continued participation throughout the year in STEM-related after school programs can foster their affinity towards STEM subjects and build their knowledge base to become college ready. A few students who participated in the summer program have already received an acceptance to begin their undergraduate education in STEM fields in fall 2023. Students communicated with the MAA staff and were very appreciative of the experiential knowledge gained through the program and how timely corporate partnerships rendered by the AT&T, Con Edison and National Grid made the program attractive and relevant, and how favored their eventual selections to the undergraduate program in reputed colleges/universities.