Strategies And Initiatives That Revitalize Wesley College STEM Programs

Main Article Content

Malcolm J. D'Souza
Wesley College

William K. Kroen
Wesley College

Charlene B. Stephens
Wesley College

Richard J. Kashmar
Wesley College

Keywords

Wesley College, STEM Education, Retention, Student Success, Minority Serving Institution (MSI), SAT, NIH NIGMS (IDeA) INBRE, NSF EPSCoR, NSF S-STEM, Cannon Scholar program, DE-INBRE, DE-EPSCoR

Abstract

Church-related small private liberal arts baccalaureate minority-serving institutions like Wesley College have modest endowments, are heavily tuition-dependent, and have large numbers of financially-challenged students. In order to sustain the level of academic excellence and to continue to build student demographic diversity in its accessible robust Science and Mathematics (STEM) programs, the faculty sought federal and state funds to implement a coordinated program of curriculum enhancements and student support programs that will increase the number of students choosing STEM majors, increase their academic success, and improve retention.

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Published
Jun 30, 2015
DOI https://doi.org/10.19030/tlc.v12i3.9311

Article Details

How to Cite
D’Souza, M. J., Kroen, W. K., Stephens, C. B., & Kashmar, R. J. (2015). Strategies And Initiatives That Revitalize Wesley College STEM Programs. Journal of College Teaching & Learning (TLC), 12(3), 195–208. https://doi.org/10.19030/tlc.v12i3.9311
Issue
Vol. 12 No. 3 (2015)
Section
Articles
Author Biographies

Malcolm J. D'Souza, Wesley College

Malcolm J. D’Souza is Professor of Chemistry at Wesley College, in Dover, Delaware. He is the Principal Investigator on the Wesley College DE-INBRE, DE-EPSCoR, NSF ARRA, and Cannon Scholar (NSF S-STEM) programs. In 2009, to mark the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Northern Illinois University (NIU), recognized the accomplishments of Dr. D’Souza as one of its 50 most distinguished alumni of the college. In 2012, he was awarded the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) E. Emmett Reid Award, which recognizes high-quality teaching in chemistry at small colleges in the ACS Mid-Atlantic region. In addition to his research in physical organic chemistry, he also has projects, presentations, and publications in the area of chemometrics, STEM education, weight-loss studies, and in the design of commercial databases that assist in the development of new pharmaceutical and agricultural products. Dr. D’Souza also serves as the Associate Dean of Interdisciplinary/Collaborative Sponsored Research.

William K. Kroen, Wesley College

William K. Kroen is Professor of Biology at Wesley College. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, he earned the Ph.D. at Duke University. His primary teaching duties at Wesley are Biology I and II, plus The Scientific Process. As an offshoot of developing the Scientific Process course, his examination of the backgrounds and successes of entering Wesley STEM students led to some of the curriculum changes in the majors mentioned here (including course sequence rearrangements). He served as chairperson of the Four-Year College and University Section of the National Association of Biology Teachers in 2010.

Charlene B. Stephens, Wesley College

Charlene B. Stephens is Executive-Director of Student Success and Retention at Wesley College and a graduate of Houghton College (NY) with a Masters of Arts in Writing and Journalism from Kent State University (OH). In addition to extensive teaching experience in English and Writing, she has many years of background in academic support and mentoring on the college level. She has worked as a Director of Academic Support, Director of Tutoring and Writing Centers and academic support faculty on the university level. She has written and presented national webinars on early alert processes. She is currently the Project Evaluator for the Cannon Scholar program at Wesley College.

Richard J. Kashmar, Wesley College

Richard J. Kashmar is Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Wesley College. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, he received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Kashmar’s teaching responsibilities include the Chemistry I and II courses, as well as Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences and Analytical Chemistry. He has done research work involving the statistical comparison of student performance in the traditional freshman-sophomore chemistry sequence vs. the nontraditional sequence used at Wesley. He has presented his results at an American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in 2009, at the Middle Atlantic Regional ACS Meeting in 2011, and at the 22nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education in 2012 (where he also organized and moderated a symposium on nontraditional chemistry sequences).