Isabel Garcia was sitting in her calculus class at Merced College when she first learned about a program that would give her hundreds of dollars in scholarship money to take classes at U.C. Merced. The course is designed to train future teachers by giving them early hands on experience.
Isabel Garcia said, "She was telling us about all of the opportunities we could have about being in the classroom and actually getting stipends and all this interaction with the kids that we wouldn't normally get, so I automatically hopped on that bandwagon."
The University has received more than $160-thousand dollars to offer stipends to as many as 50 Merced College students to join the science and math initiative or SMI. The program encourages students in the science, math, and engineering fields to pursue teaching those subjects at the K through 12 grade level.
Maria Pallavicini said, "And it's so important because we do not have enough science and math teachers in the Valley or even in the state or the nation that have the subject matter material knowledge to actually provide outstanding teaching in math and science."
Along with about a dozen students from Merced College, more than 250 full time U.C. Merced students are also taking part in the program. And the hope is that many of them will stay in the Valley to teach.
S.M.I. Director Krista Venecia said, "Most of our SMI students are from the Central Valley area, about 50% of them are from around Sacramento down to Bakersfield, and I think that's because a lot of the students know the problems with getting teachers in this area, and they want to give back to their community."
And that includes Isabel, who has now transferred to U.C. Merced.
"Having been involved in this program, I've seriously considered pursuing education as a career, so I'm very grateful for that," said Garcia.
