By News and Internal Communications

By Maria Gonzalez

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – UTRGV has been awarded a five-year, $3 million grant for research focused on enhancing the success of undergraduate Hispanic students in STEM disciplines.

The National Science Foundation awarded the funding to a team of UTRGV researchers for a project called “HSI Institutional Transformation Project: Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Through Family-Centered Pedagogy,” which seeks to assess and implement a novel  Family-Centered Theory of Change Model.

Dr. Parwinder Grewal, executive vice president for Research, Graduate Studies and New Program Development, is principal investigator of the project.

“This grant will provide resources for investigators to identify and dismantle deficit thinking systems, policies and practices and one-size-fits-all pedagogies that continue to marginalize Latinx students from STEM fields in the United States,” he said. 

 

HOW WILL IT WORK?

The Institutional Transformation Project program will focus both on faculty development and students transitioning to college, Grewal said.

“Our existing Community-Engaged Scholarship & Learning, CESL1101 seminar course will be revised into an introductory Mexican American Studies course for STEM students, as they make their transition from high school to college,” he said. “This CESL course will address diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) through the multidimensional intersectionality framework for multiple social identities, domains of power and historicity.”

UTRGV researchers said they plan to use the project in a variety of ways that will help boost student interest and persistence in STEM fields.

“We are so excited to receive this prestigious award from the NSF, as it will help us move UTRGV toward a truly Hispanic/Latinx "Serving" Institution,” said Dr. Maritza De La Trinidad, Mexican American Studies associate professor and co-principal investigator.

“The grant will introduce new pedagogies and frameworks to teaching introductory STEM courses, such as Family-Centered pedagogies and culturally relevant / responsive teaching centered on students' culture, language and heritage.”

The project features an interdisciplinary collaboration between more UTRGV faculty from the STEM fields and Mexican American Studies, and a local non-profit organization called Ave Frontera which will serve as a medium of engagement with students, faculty, and administrators in critical conversations where family leaders can participate in UTRGV’s transformation process to help determine what is in the best interest of Latinx students.

 The project is designed to create educational opportunities and environments with an impact on more than 1500 students during the course of the five-year grant period.

“The goal is to help STEM faculty learn how to build trusting relationships with their students,” said Dr. Juan Salinas, CEO of Ave Frontera.

“AVE Frontera will train faculty on how to build student, family and teacher engagement within their STEM courses, and we will collaborate with the grant-lead team to investigate the effectiveness of the family-centered and culturally relevant pedagogical model,” Salinas said.

 

UTRGV and AVE PROJECT INVESTIGATORS

• Parwinder Grewal, Ph. D., EVP for Research, Graduate Studies and New Program Development and principal investigator of the project.
• Maritza De La Trinidad, Ph.D. – associate professor of Mexican American Studies.
• Stephanie Alvarez, Ph.D. – associate professor of Mexican American Studies.
• Mayra L. Ortiz Galarza, Ph.D. – assistant professor School of Mathematical and Statistical Science.
• Olga Ramirez, Ph.D. – professor School of Mathematical and Statistical Science.
• Jose J. Gutierrez, Ph.D. – professor Department of Chemistry.
• Nicolas A. Pereyra, Ph.D. – associate professor Department of Physics and Astronomy.
• Juan Salinas Jr., Ed – CEO, AVE Frontera.