National Science Foundation Grant to Support Hispanic Biology Majors at Bloomfield College

Bloomfield College was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in the amount of $199,989 for its student academic support project entitled Interventions to Improve Academic Performance of Biology Majors at Bloomfield College. “The immediate goal of this program is to support our first-year biology majors to succeed in their first year of college, so they are better prepared to successfully graduate and join a STEM workforce that is lacking in representation from professionals of Hispanic origin,” said Bloomfield College Professor of Biology and Grant Principal Investigator Tammy A. Castro, Ph.D. According to Castro, the planned interventions are hypothesized to lead to measurable increases in the academic performance of first-year biology majors. Castro and her team will support Bloomfield biology students in three key areas: academic engagement and determination, interpersonal relations, and psychological well-being which will include sense of belonging, self-efficacy in general, and self-efficacy in biology. Specifically, incoming biology students in the program will participate in a week-long intensive summer enrichment to get a jumpstart on the first course in the biology curriculum. They will receive academic and social support via a peer coaching and tutoring program coordinated by a faculty member and led by trained peer coaches…
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