The University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu and UH Mānoa College of Education will receive nearly $1.2 million in funding from the National Science Foundation Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program for a collaborative project aimed at developing content-rich, highly qualified, and culturally responsive secondary mathematics teachers who can fulfill kuleana to Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) students within high-need school districts in Hawai‘i.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced last month the award, which will provide $1,199,865 in funding for a five-year project titled, “Culturally Responsive Education and Teaching Empowerment (CREATE).” The award is from the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, which provides funding to institutions of higher education to provide scholarships, stipends, and programmatic support to recruit and prepare STEM majors and professionals to become K-12 teachers, according to the NSF Noyce website.
“This award will not only fill in teaching shortages at the high-need schools, but also highly qualified ones,” said CREATE Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Veny Liu, associate professor of Mathematics at UH West O‘ahu.
The grant supports homegrown teachers for Hawai‘i public schools, noted CREATE co-Principal Investigator (co-PI) Dr. Monica Smith, associate professor of Elementary Education, Multilingual Learning at UH Mānoa.
“Our work creates a bridge between the UH West O‘ahu and UH Mānoa campuses to recruit prospective educators from the westside to develop culturally responsive math educators for Hawai‘i,” Smith said. “This award allows us to dedicate our teacher preparation efforts to teaching the children of Hawai‘i with a local perspective.”
CREATE will provide scholarships for eligible students pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Natural Science with an Applied Mathematics (and possibly Life Science) concentration from UH West O‘ahu, and eligible students pursuing a teaching certificate from UH Mānoa’s post-baccalaureate program with Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)-infused courses during their senior year and post-baccalaureate year, Liu said.
The student scholarship recipients will be called Noyce scholars and will commit to teaching full-time in the Kaimuki-McKinley-Roosevelt Complex Area in the Honolulu District or other high-need Local Education Agencies (LEA) in Hawai‘i for two years per year for which scholarship support was received after completing the program.
Aside from the scholarship, the current project funded by the grant is the Peer Academic Leader (PAL) project, which employs UH West O‘ahu students who enjoy math and science to facilitate tutoring and academic support sessions, among other duties. Students interested in becoming a PAL can apply at the UH System Student Employment and Co-operative Education (SECE) website, and search for job number 272062.
The NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program award is a great opportunity for interested UH West O‘ahu and UH Mānoa students, both Liu and Smith said.
“UH West O‘ahu students will be supported to nurture their passion and interest in the teaching professions with the two years of cost-of-attendance financial support (even for outer island students), the Peer Academic Leader student job, travel support to attend conferences, and other professional development opportunities,” Liu said.
The grant fosters a strong pilina with the local community, Smith added.
“It’s not just about providing scholarships for prospective math teachers; it’s an opportunity to strengthen local culture,” she said. “The NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program empowers us to support the people of Hawai‘i, for the people of Hawai‘i. By offering scholarships to Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students, or students who have an interest in supporting culturally responsive secondary Math education, we’re ensuring that more local individuals can pursue their college degrees and enrich our educational landscape.”
CREATE will begin accepting applications for Noyce scholars in the spring 2025 semester. Interested students can email venyliu@hawaii.edu.