- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1950255
- First Name Sharon
- Last Name Vestal
- Institution South Dakota State University
- Role/Position Principal Investigator (PI)
- Proposal Type Lightning Talk
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Evaluators/Education Researchers, Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Keeping in touch with alumni post-Noyce, Promising practices for preparing and retaining teachers in rural districts
Proposal
South Dakota State University first applied for NSF Noyce funding in 2007. We were awarded funding in 2007 to create the Rural Enhancement of Mathematics And Science Teachers (REMAST) Scholarship Program. In 2014 we received Noyce Phase II funding to continue our project and create a longitudinal study. Our 2019 Noyce Track I funding has allowed us to continue our program. We want to share the successes of our project and ideas to help those who want to create a successful Noyce program in a rural setting. Throughout the three rounds of Noyce funding, we have produced 84 science and math teachers who serve mostly rural areas of the northern Great Plains. Approximately 78.6% of our Noyce alumni are currently teaching middle school or high school math or science, working in some aspect of education, or attending graduate school full-time. We owe much of our project success to the tight-knit community that we have built.
