Continued Push Needed for STEM Training and Education Fund - Higher Education: Recounting her experiences recently as a child growing up on an isolated farm in North Carolina during the 1940s, Ms. Martin told me that STEM began for her with the chore of picking green tobacco worms off the crop, some of which she kept as “pets” while others were subjected to rigorous “scientific” protocols that she designed herself. This early work would lead to degrees in biology and education from Fayetteville State University and a teaching career that for some 40 years focused on nurturing talent and exposing young people to the wonders of agricultural science.
Last month’s historic passage of comprehensive immigration reform in the United States Senate, in addition to improving the hopes and prospects of millions of undocumented immigrants, both affirms and undergirds the heroic efforts of teachers like Ms. Martin by establishing a STEM Training and Education fund for under-served and under-resourced students.
Twenty percent of the fund is targeted to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving institutions through a special provision created by Senators Charles Schumer (D-New York), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana).
