Multi-Million-Dollar Grant Broadens Opportunities for Affordable STEM Education

Lawrence Technological University’s College of Arts and Sciences (CoAS) has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to encourage academically promising, economically disadvantaged students to pursue STEM-focused (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degrees and professions.

Paving STEM Pathways for Underrepresented Students

In its synopsis of the grant program, the NSF says, “The main goal of the S-STEM (Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program is to enable academically talented, low-income students to pursue successful careers in promising STEM fields. Ultimately, the S-STEM program seeks to increase the number of academically promising low-income students who graduate with an S-STEM eligible degree and contribute to the American innovation economy with their STEM knowledge.”

The name of LTU’s award-winning S-STEM proposal is “I-CAAN: Fostering Confidence, Academic Achievement, and Networking to Strengthen the STEM Workforce.” The LTU S-STEM leadership team will identify two cohorts of 12 domestic students each who meet the grant criteria and will provide direct scholarships amounting to $1.44 million for students to pursue undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, or computer science over the six-year course of the grant project.

Unique to this program is the use of storytelling to enhance relationships, improve student engagement, and boost academic achievement to drive institutional change, with the aim of improving the graduation rates of academically talented, economically disadvantaged students. Shannon Timmons, PhD, chair of the Department of Natural Sciences, professor of chemistry, and the grant’s principal investigator, explained, “By fostering communal experiences and horizontal networks, storytelling helps students shape their academic and professional narratives – an under-documented process in STEM that has the power to transform lives and help students succeed.”

Commitment to Student Success and Social Mobility

Beyond scholarships, funding will be used to implement programming to improve student retention and rates of degree completion, as well as career success. Student support initiatives include a summer bridge program, a faculty mentoring program, a “My STEM Story” seminar series, and an annual “Success Stories” STEM career panel and alumni networking event.

The I-CAAN program aligns with the original mission of LTU. Founded during the Great Depression in 1932, LTU was established to promote the social mobility of Henry Ford’s Model T assembly line workers. This NSF-funded project will implement supportive programs and sustainable improvements to enhance LTU student success and strengthen the STEM workforce in Southeast Michigan. Our seminar series and career panel events will be open to all students and faculty in I-CAAN disciplines, affording secondary benefits to a broader audience.

“I wrote this grant as a tribute to my father, a first-generation college student from an economically disadvantaged background,” Timmons said. “Ultimately, this award reaffirms LTU’s commitment to student success and social mobility, while advancing STEM workforce development in Southeast Michigan and beyond,” Timmons said.

Faculty Involvement and Next Steps

Joining her on the multidisciplinary I-CAAN leadership team as co-principal investigators are CoAS colleagues Destiny Anyaiwe, PhD, associate professor of computer science; Bhujyo Bhattacharya, PhD, associate professor of physics; Matthew Johnston, PhD, associate professor of mathematics; and Aleksandra Kuzmanov, PhD, associate professor of biology. Steven Wang, PhD, assistant professor of media communication, serves as senior personnel, and Erika Forest, science outreach coordinator, provides support for on-campus I-CAAN projects. Additional staff members from fifteen different offices across campus will also help support the distribution of scholarships and implementation of the I-CAAN program’s supportive programming activities.

If you know a student who would benefit from LTU’s I-CAAN program or have questions, please contact Dr. Timmons at stimmons@ltu.edu. To apply to participate in the fall 2026 I-CAAN cohort, please visit ltu.edu/apply. Applicants who meet the eligibility standards will be invited to apply via a secondary application.