Out of 34 public and private institutions, Harris-Stowe State University currently ranks number one in graduating African Americans with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
Building on this base, the university aims to become a regional and national leader in graduating African Americans and other underrepresented groups with STEM degrees – or degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Harris-Stowe President Dwaun J. Warmack announced recently that Emerson will donate $500,000 over five years to help the university reach this goal. The gift will provide STEM scholarships for North County students to attend Harris-Stowe and will expand on existing efforts and activities in STEM.
“This scholarship will be a significant catalyst to support our on ongoing mission in STEM,” Warmack said, “and allows us to continue to strengthen and increase recruitment, retention and graduation of STEM majors at HSSU.”
The Emerson Scholarship for North County residents is ideal since more than 40 percent of students enrolled that graduate from Harris-Stowe live in North County, said Pat Sly, Executive Vice President at Emerson. The company initiated the gift as part of their efforts to help rebuild Ferguson.
“It began with a meeting with Dr. Warmack,” Sly said. “He was a breath of fresh air. We discussed ways we could help with STEM scholarships for citizens from Ferguson.”
Sly is among the 16 members of the Ferguson Commission, which has met several times to discuss public policy topics relevant to the crisis in Ferguson. However, he said he is looking forward to beginning talks about education.
“Education has got to be a high priority for us on the commission,” Sly said.
He described the first two meetings as having “a lot of disruption from people who wanted to have a voice in a public forum.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “We should be doing more listening than we are talking initially.”
STEM degrees are the fastest-growing majors at HSSU. Moreover, 40 percent of all African-American males enrolled in mathematics degree programs out of the 13 public four-year institutions statewide are from HSSU.
“Emerson is proud to support under-represented students as they pursue educational opportunities and careers in STEM disciplines,” Sly said. “We believe STEM careers will be critical as the economy changes.”
Students who are awarded the scholarship will also participate in undergraduate research and will be able to present their research at regional and national conferences.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Dwyane Smith said, “The Emerson Scholarship program will be pivotal in our efforts to attract scholars to our STEM programs.”
