Though President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address stressed the need for a competitive workforce, especially in more technical fields such as energy, young Americans see massive barriers to entering such professions, according to survey results released Wednesday. Huffington Post, 1/25/12

The measure of a university is more than the sum of its buildings, the size of its enrollment, its array of degrees, its number of graduates, or its cumulative grade point average. It is instead the qualities of the students, faculty, and staff who comprise its community.

To these ends, Dr. James Kitchen, Vice President for Student Affairs, along with Student Life and Leadership, announces the 26th annual Vice Presidential Student Service Awards. Under the theme of “Quest for the Best,” these awards seek to recognize outstanding student leaders who have typified and promoted this broader mission of the university.

NSF offers a wide variety of paid summer research experiences for undergraduates. To search over 600 programs, please visit: http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/undergrads.asp

You probably don’t want to admit it but you love distractions. In fact, just like monkeys, you get a shot of dopamine every time something pulls you in another direction. Why do you think you check your email so much?

Want to be more productive and get your focus back? There are no secret tricks here… do one thing at a time. Stop multitasking—it’s just another form of distraction.

This is a list of the active chemistry division funded REU sites (Sies with active NSF awards). Almost every site has a web page where more information can be obtained. Clicking on a highlighted site title should direct you to the external web page. [NSF is not responsible for the content of these external web pages.] Useful information for REU Site Principal Investigators can be found through the REU Leadership Group (http://www.nsf-reu.org/) [Not an NSF website -- NSF is not responsible for its content]

At one engineering school, only 35% of students who enter an engineering program graduate in the field. Nationally, 22% of students entering college choose a STEM major, but only 14% finish with one of those majors. At Columbia University, however, 96% of students who enter engineering graduate as engineers, due to the school’s “practical approach.”

Coalition aims to increase attention to declining math, science performance

(CBS News)

Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has an unusual name – and an even more unusual approach to education. His “Meyerhoff Scholars,” for instance, are expected to adhere to a rigorous schedule and strict rules designed to instill discipline and build community. As Byron Pitts reports, what was once a little known commuter school is now graduating outstanding scientists and engineers, many of whom are minorities.

San Diego City College MESA Program Director Rafael Alvarez was interviewed on November 22, 2011 by NBC 7 reporter Rory Devine, in response to a Forbes Magazine article on Hispanics in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Below are links to the NBC 7 video and Forbes article. Also included in the video is a San Diego State University (SDSU) MESA student and President of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) – SDSU Chapter.

Studies have found that roughly 40 percent of students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree… “We’re losing an alarming proportion of our nation’s science talent once the students get to college,” says Mitchell J. Chang, an education professor at U.C.L.A. who has studied the matter. “It’s not just a K-12 preparation issue.