PITTSBURGH – Three new communities will join the STEM PUSH Network, a National Science Foundation INCLUDES Alliance, to work for systemic change in post-secondary admissions.

The Arizona SciTech Institute, the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network and the NeoSTEM Ecosystem in Cleveland, all Ecosystems associated with the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice, are the second cohort to join the STEM PUSH Network.

STEM PUSH is focused on equitable college access and seeks to reinvent the relationship between pre-college STEM programs and higher education admissions offices. The goal of the Alliance is to change admissions review by providing an evidence-based and equitable supplement to our current culturally biased standardized test-based system.

The three new Ecosystems will each bring four or five pre-college STEM programs (PCSPs) that operate in their communities to the STEM PUSH Network. 

The STEM PUSH Network will work with these pre-college STEM programs to improve their programming along a set of PCSP quality standards for broadening participation of Black and Brown students in STEM. Ultimately, STEM PUSH will help PCSPs in the Network become accredited by the Middle States Association which will be used to communicate the value of these programs to college admissions officers. 

The Arizona SciTech Institute, the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network and the NeoSTEM Ecosystem will be joining four other Ecosystems from the first cohort, Pittsburgh, New York City, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area, to participate in the STEM PUSH Network. 

“We selected these new communities because we believe that each of them brings a genuine desire to increase the number of Black and Brown minoritized students who enter and persist in STEM,” said Becky Gonda, STEM PUSH Senior Personnel and lead of the Ecosystems work. “And we believe that these communities will match that desire with a true willingness to work for the changes and improvements that will enable their pre-college STEM programs to become an important factor in college admissions.”

Follow STEM PUSH on social media for more information and news from the Network. 

Twitter @STEMPUSHNetwork | linkedin.com/company/stem-push-network | facebook.com/STEMPUSH