SNC Tahoe and other Nevada colleges win grant for STEM and health research

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/29/2016 - 5:01pm

Sierra Nevada College on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe has been awarded a five year grant to develop infrastructure for health-related research and STEM education in the state of Nevada. The National Institutes of Health program grant was given jointly also to the University of Nevada, Reno; UNLV, College of Southern Nevada; Great Basin College; Nevada State College; University of Nevada School of Medicine; Western Nevada College; and Truckee Meadows Community College.

STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, areas students in the United States trail many other countries according to the National Institutes of Health.

These partner institutions will use the grant to fund research centers, equipment, supplies, and faculty resources to conduct health research and train undergraduate and graduate students in science disciplines, with the goal of increasing the number of grant applications coming from Nevada to the National Institutes of Health.

As a college that requires research in every undergraduate major, SNC Tahoe joined the competitive grant process seeking to leverage its robust interdisciplinary curriculum and philosophy of hands-on learning according to Erika Gillette of Sierra Nevada College. The four-year college in Incline Village offers degrees in Biology, Psychology, and Environmental Science, among other majors, to advance the project. The goals of the grant are twofold: to nurture undergraduate research in science and psychology that prepares students for graduate programs in health-related fields in the state of Nevada; and to stimulate an increase the number of grant applications to the National Institutes of Health from the state of Nevada.

“This partnership strengthens science and technology curriculum at the college level in Nevada,” said Shannon Beets, SNC Tahoe’s executive vice president and provost. “By building this foundation, we are preparing this state to be a place where tomorrow’s scientific breakthroughs will happen.”