In our capacity building project, we are collaborating with the Kentucky Community and Technical College (KCTCS). KCTCS is comprised of 16 community colleges (with more than 70 satellite campus locations) and is the largest provider of post-secondary education in the state with an enrollment of 106,498 students (55% female and 45% male); 56% are Pell grant recipients, 44% are underrepresented minorities and 32% are first generation students. In the Capacity Building project, we developed a 2x2 (two years at a KCTCS community college and 2 years at BU) course transfer plan in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics so that students from the KCTCS community colleges can seamlessly transfer and transition to BU to obtain a STEM degree and pursue the Early Entry MAT teacher certification degree. The availability of scholarships from this Noyce grant will be critical in attracting qualified community college students who have completed an Associate is Science (AS) degree to transfer to BU to enroll as a Junior in their respective STEM discipline and obtain a teacher certification in their third year after completing the MAT degree. As part of our Capacity Building project, we have already identified a contact person (STEM faculty) at each of the KCTCS community colleges who will work with Dr. Calhoun-French (VP of Academic Affairs) at Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC), and assist with the recruitment efforts and facilitate the transfer of Noyce scholars to BU. JCTC (KCTCS’s campus in Louisville) with a student body of 12,000 will be the primary community college transfer institution to BU.
For more information about KCTCS - https://kctcs.edu/