Bridging Science, Education, and Career Development

G.E.M. Environmental has been awarded a Science Community grant by American Geophysical Union (AGU) Centennial. The focus of the grant is to enhance mutual support and networking opportunities for students and early career scientists. This grant marks the third in the past month that GEM has been awarded. One was from the Environmental and Sustainability fund, a component of the Arizona Community Foundation, and the other was from the BNSF Railroad Foundation for STEM interns to gain industry readiness.
 
AGU-Centennial grant funds will support GEM’s Field Experience Program, which teaches students about different STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) disciplines while facilitating learning to encourage active participation in discussion, expression, and communication. In addition to their education, students gain supervised practice experience working in the capacity of geo-scientists to obtain the range of capabilities required to enter industry in a professional capacity. The Program is designed to benefit underserved students, specifically first generation, female, minority, and low-income participants.
 
“We launched the program during the Spring 2019 semester at Yavapai College, which impacted approximately 140 students,” Eric M. Welsh, GEM’s Executive Director said. “GEM’s goal is to expand the program into two additional classrooms during the Fall 2019 semester at Yavapai College and offer two additional field trips, which would impact about 240 students in 2019 alone. We’re also working with Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy and other institutions to offer the program by 2020. Overall, the total estimated reach will directly impact 416 students and indirectly impact up to 860 students through 2020 across three schools.”

AGU was established in 1919 by the National Research Council and for more than 50 years operated as an unincorporated affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences. AGU was independently incorporated in 1972. More information is available at www.centennial.agu.org.