The University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu and UH Mānoa College of Education have been awarded nearly $1.2 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to launch the “Culturally Responsive Education and Teaching Empowerment” (CREATE) project. The five-year initiative aims to develop culturally responsive secondary math teachers to serve Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students in high-need schools across Hawaiʻi.
Funded by the NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, the grant will provide scholarships, stipends and support to STEM majors pursuing a career in teaching.
“This award will not only fill in teaching shortages but also ensure they are filled by highly qualified educators,” said Principal Investigator Veny Liu, an associate professor of mathematics at UH West Oʻahu.
The program will offer scholarships to eligible UH West Oʻahu students pursuing a bachelor of science in natural science degree with an applied mathematics concentration and eligible students pursuing a teaching certificate from UH Mānoa’s post-baccalaureate program with Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages courses during their senior year and post-baccalaureate years.
Scholarship recipients will be called Noyce Scholars and will commit to teaching full-time in the Kaimukī-McKinley-Roosevelt Complex Area in the Honolulu District or other high-need areas in Hawaiʻi for two years for each year that scholarship support was received.
“Our work creates a bridge between UH West Oʻahu and UH Mānoa to develop culturally responsive math educators for Hawaiʻi’s schools,” said CREATE Co-Principal Investigator and UH Mānoa Associate Professor Monica Smith.
CREATE will begin accepting applications in spring 2025. Interested students can email Liu at venyliu@hawaii.edu for more information.
The grant also supports the Peer Academic Leader (PAL) project, which employs UH West Oʻahu students who enjoy math and science to facilitate tutoring and academic support sessions, among other duties. Students interested in becoming a PAL can apply at the UH System Student Employment and Co-operative Education website.
For more visit Ka Puna O Kaloʻi.
—By Zenaida Serrano Arvman
