EnvironMentors Awarded Grant from Toyota USA Foundation

Washington, DC - The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) has been awarded a two-year grant totaling nearly $450,000 by the Toyota USA Foundation to motivate and prepare high school students underrepresented in the sciences for college degree programs and careers in environmentally-related STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields.

The grant will support NCSE’s national EnvironMentors program, serving underrepresented high school students at 13 chapters nationwide including: Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Arkansas State University, Colorado State University, Florida A&M University, Heritage University, Kean University, Louisiana State University, North Carolina State University, University of California, Davis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, West Virginia University, and the flagship Washington, DC EnvironMentors chapter.

The Toyota USA Foundation has been integral to EnvironMentors’ national program success through previous grant awards to support its expansion from a local community program based in Washington, DC to a national, university-based chapter program, and through a teacher training initiative, supporting teachers in integrating EnvironMentors experimental science methods into classrooms.

EnvironMentors matches high school students in one-on-one mentoring relationships with faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from host universities, and with environmental professionals working at government agencies, NGOs, and businesses. Students and mentors apply the scientific method to develop experimental research projects on an environmental topic based on students’ personal interests. Throughout the process, students build critical analytic and communication skills, and gain invaluable exposure to local environmental issues and real world application outside of the classroom. Top students from each chapter compete for scholarships at the National EnvironMentors Fair held annually in May in Washington, DC.

EnvironMentors uniquely addresses the need to further engage students in STEM education and career development especially within underrepresented communities, including women, African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians. Through best practices developed over a 19-year history, EnvironMentors has created a successful model to build scientific research, critical thinking and problem solving skills among under-represented high school students through inquiry-based learning in nature facilitated by an adult mentor.

The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking.. NCSE builds innovative and effective connections and partnerships between those who generate, educate and communicate science relevant to the environment and those who seek to use science to guide decisions at local, state, national, and international levels. Visit NCSE on the Web at www.ncseonline.org.

Contact: 

Tahlia Bear

EnvironMentors Managing Director

202-530-5810