Northampton Community College partners with East Stroudsburg University for STEM education

Northampton Community College (NCC) is partnering with East Stroudsburg University to implement a $5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) “Clear Path” grant awarded to the university. 

The grant, a partnership among ESU and Northampton Community College, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Luzerne Community College, and Community College of Morris, will provide scholarships of up to $10,000 a year to support the timely completion of STEM associate and STEM bachelor’s degrees from community college partners to ESU, according to a NCC statement. 

Karen Bearce, interim vice president of academic affairs at NCC, said, “The Clear Path scholarship provides students with a tremendous opportunity to build relationships with the ESU STEM community while at NCC.  This type of cohort experience built around mentoring, advisement, and student engagement is just what students need to succeed both academically and professionally.” 

The Clear Path grant supports students with proactive developmental advocacy, holistic advising, peer mentoring and tutoring, and mentor mediated online education that fosters academic success, NCC said. 

Dr. T. Michelle Jones-Wilson, professor and department chair of chemistry and biochemistry at ESU said, “Through CP2 programing and intervention we will increase associate degree completion to greater than 90% with effective advising and scholar support. We’ll maintain a 90% program retention rate with a 2.8 GPA minimum, reduce the transfer deficit through Clear Path programming, and increase underrepresented populations by employing methods that support diverse populations.”