Center for Science Excellence

• Academic enrichment
• 奖学金
• Internship opportunities
• Seminar presentations by STEM professionals
• Workshops and 辅导
• Academic and career mentoring by STEM professionals
• 学术之旅
• Help transferring to a university
• 社区 service opportunities
• Alternative study environments with like-minded, STEM-focused students
• 奖学金 (up to $3,400 /年,) are awarded to full-time STEM majors who maintain good standing in the program and are PELL Grant-eligible.

In order to fully benefit from all services offered by the Center for Science Excellence, you must meet the following criteria:

• Be a full-time student at Contra Costa College
• 选择STEM专业, and planning to graduate from and / or transfer to a STEM program at a four-year institution.
• Be eligible for federal financial aid or California College Promise Grant fee waiver
• 保持3分.0 GPA (though students with a lower GPA may apply)
• Be a US citizen/permanent resident
• Participate in all activities sponsored by the Center for Science Excellence (workshops, 研讨会, 辅导, and weekly mentor meetings)

Qualifying students can join by downloading an 应用程序包 or picking one up at the CSE office, then submitting it along with the following documents:

• Proof of Financial Aid
• Educational Plan Signed by a Counselor
• Unofficial Transcript
• Letter of Recommendation from a STEM Professor
• Personal Statement
• Current Semester Schedule

The Center for Science Excellence has received grants of $7.5 million from various funding agencies, including the Army Research Office, National Science 基金会 (NSF),  Department of Education (DoEd), United States Department of Agriculture and  University of California Office of President MESA program (UCOP-MESA).

The funding pays for a student assistant, 奖学金, summer research internship stipends, supplies and materials, and academic related activities.

National Science 基金会 奖学金 in STEM (NSF S-STEM)

目前的资金

Award Number: 1564587 (2016-2021)

Project Title: 奖学金 For Excellence, 成就, and Professional Competence in Science, 数学, 和工程

持续时间:5年

The goal of the Contra Costa College S-STEM Scholar project is to graduate or transfer at least 80% of scholars to four-year institutions within three years. The project provides two-year 奖学金 for four cohorts of 30 low-income, academically talented and financially disadvantaged students in biological sciences, 计算机科学, 工程, mathematics and physical sciences.

The project will build on the success of its previous Computer Sciences, Engineering and 数学ematics 奖学金 project by integrating scholars into the Center for Science Excellence academic support infrastructure. S-STEM scholars will benefit from an array of services that includes faculty mentoring, academic support services, 群体建筑, and professional development activities. The results of the project support will decrease the time-to-degree within two to three years, and increase the persistence, graduation and transfer rates of low-income and underrepresented students in STEM disciplines.

Year I Results (2016-2017)

A total of twenty-nine students participated actively in the program, 41% of the students were females. The ethnicity distribution included 52% Hispanics, 14% Pacific Islanders, 10% African Americans, 10%的亚洲人, 10%的白种人, 3%的人, and 4% not reported. A large percentage of the students major in 工程 (48.3%)而34.5% major in biological science, 13.8% in physical science, and 3.4% in computer science. The comprehensive academic support activities helped boost student performance: 77.5% of the students maintained grade point averages between 3.0和4.0 while the rest were below 3.0.

CSE program encouraged students to apply for summer internships. In the summer 2017, thirteen students participated in summer internship programs: 53.8% in national labs (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and United States Department of Agriculture, 奥尔巴尼, CA), 38.5 % in teaching hospital (Children Hospital Oakland Research Institute and UC 戴维斯 Medical Center), 和7.加州大学伯克利分校7%.

CSE program organized orientation, summer research presentation, 校友面板, 研讨会 by visiting professionals from national labs, 教学医院, 大学, 和行业. In 2016-2017 academic year, the program hosted distinguished guests from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Dr. William Drew Collins, Dr. Romy Chakraborty, and Robin Lopez), from UC San Francisco (Dr. 托马斯·朗博士. Alan Wu), County of Alameda District Attorney Mark Jackson, and Mr. Eddie Morris and Mr. Jude Onwuemeka who are both engineers and alumni of the CSE program.

Out of the 29 student participants, twelve students (41.4%) transferred to 大学 to earn their baccalaureate degrees and the rest continued with the program. Of the twelve transfer students, eight students (66.7%) transferred to Universities of California (Berkeley, 戴维斯, 洛杉矶, and San Diego) and four transferred to California State Universities (San Jose and East Bay).

Program effectiveness was evaluated by an evaluation team from the Lawrence Hall of Science evaluation team, 以女士为首. 瓦罗梅洛. She conducted online surveys, Focus Group interviews, and line of sight evaluation in various activities.

Read the full 2016-2017 evaluation.

Year II Results (2017-2018)

Thirty-two students participated in the program in 2017-2018 academic year. Unlike in the first year, 62% of the student population was female. Ethnicity distribution includes 43.8%的西班牙裔，15岁.6% African Americans, 9.4% Pacific Islanders, 6.3%的白人，3.1%亚洲人，21岁.8%其他或混合.

Unlike in the first year, more students major in biological science (46.9%)， 34%.3% majored in 工程, 9.4% in computer science, 6.3% in physical science, and 3.其他占1%. The percentage of students maintaining GPA between 3.0 – 4.0增加到90.6% while the rest maintained GPAs between 2.0-3.0.

Eleven students were selected to participate in the summer internship programs: 36.4% in Children Hospital Oakland Research Institute, 27.2%在美国.S. Department of Agriculture, 奥尔巴尼, CA., 18.2%在美国niversities of California (Berkeley and 洛杉矶), and 18.2% out-of-state 大学 (Georgia Tech and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY).

Besides the orientation and summer research internship panel, there were nine STEM 研讨会 and two workshops on UC applications and programs. The 研讨会 covered a wide range of 前ics, from the health effect of climate change to software and hardware 工程. The guest speakers featured guests from the Universities of California Berkeley and 戴维斯, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 哈佛大学, 和行业. Three speakers were especially important to our student audience because they were CSE alumni who have earned excellent positions in their respective fields: Mr. Soheil Bigdeli (Qualcomm), Ms. Gloria Guzman (UTC Aerospace System), and Dr. Edwin Reyes (Harvard postdoctoral fellow).

The second fiscal year also had higher percentage of students transferring to four-year institutions: fifteen students (46.9%) transferred to 大学 for their bachelor degree programs and the rest continued to the 2018-2019 academic year. Of the fifteen transferred students, 73.3% to Universities of California (Berkeley, 戴维斯, 圣芭芭拉分校, and Santa Cruz) while the rest chose California State Universities (CalPoly and San Jose State).

Program effectiveness was evaluated by an evaluated by an evaluation team from the Lawrence Hall of Science evaluation team, 以女士为首. 瓦罗梅洛. She conducted online surveys, Focus Group interviews, and line of sight evaluation in various activities.

学生项目

CSE students participated in a host of projects at 正规买球APP in the 2017-2018 academic year. These projects included building model rockets with Arduino sensors for logging and recording speed, 高度, 和加速度. Another group of students designed, 构造, and raced a solar-powered boat for the 2018 Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s annual California Solar Regatta, ultimately winning the Judge’s Choice Award in the college competition. Another pair of students worked on design projects involving a design for modular roller skates and a metal foundry, ultimately creating proof-of principle models. Each of the above groups presented their projects at the second annual Contra Costa College Student Research Symposium.

Read the full 2017-2018 evaluation.
第三年结果
第四年结果
第五年业绩