Institute for STEM Education at Cal State East Bay Receives Honor

Cal State East Bay’s Institute for STEM Education recently received the San Francisco Business Times 2016 Beyond the Check Award in Education. The award, given to CSUEB at an event in July, recognizes collective impacts, in this case the partnership between CSUEB, Bayer and Wareham Development.

The Institute for STEM Education is a collaboration between faculty from the College of Science and the College of Education to increase educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the community, and improve educational outcomes in STEM on the CSUEB campus.

Bruce Simon, associate director of Gateways East Bay STEM, said the institute's partnerships are a huge piece of its success and likely the impetus for the award.

“This is a really strong example of educational and non-educational entities collaborating to improve the outcomes for students,” he said.

One example Simon pointed to was the Institute for STEM Education Career Awareness Day project, which supports East Bay high school students by giving them the opportunity to explore STEM career options and talk with local employers. In addition, three CIRCLe Labs — community science centers in hard-to-reach neighborhoods with high numbers of low-income students — have been launched by the Institute in collaboration with Bayer, Wareham Development, and other partners.