SAC Receives $6.2 million in Department of Education Grants

The Department of Education has awarded two grants to San Antonio College that will separately help students with childcare needs as well as boost STEM learning among Hispanic and other underrepresented student groups. The grants, which started on Oct. 1, total $6.2 million.

The Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program grant will be directed by the Early Childhood Center. The grant will help low-income students with children from infant to four years pay for on-campus, full-day childcare and education. In addition, the CCAMPIS grant will also subsidize off-campus care for children of students. The grant will be for $1,245,728 and extend for four years.

The Early Childhood Center, part of the Early Childhood Studies program, is an educational lab facility where students, under the close supervision of faculty and child development specialists, work with children as they train to be early childhood educators. The Center is designed to provide model quality childcare for the community. The Early Childhood Center is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The Department of Education also awarded SAC a highly competitive HSI STEM grant, which supports Hispanic Serving Institutions. The award will support Project BUILD, or “Bolstering Undergraduate Inquiry, Learning, and Determination,” and significantly improve SAC’s current capacity to provide academic support to Hispanic and other underrepresented STEM majors. It will also improve SAC’s ability to combat stereotype threat and to increase underrepresented student self-efficacy and persistence.

Funding will be used for enhanced and expanded academic support to STEM major students who are enrolled in challenging STEM courses – especially College Algebra and Calculus I – to increase their chances of graduating on time and transferring to a university with a strong STEM background.

The HSI STEM grant will also support the creation of a STEM Internship Initiative/Coordinator role who will work to recruit and collaborate with local STEM employers and university faculty to sponsor internships, apprenticeships, and course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). The HSI STEM grant will be for $4,997,128 over five years.

“The grants illustrate SAC’s mission to take a holistic view of student needs on campus,” said Dr. Robert Vela, president of SAC. “We are concerned with helping students succeed, whether through providing quality childcare or with enhancing our STEM learning, tutoring, and internship opportunities”

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