College receives $1M grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Will fund interdisciplinary science research, faculty and curriculum development, high school outreach

The College of Wooster has received a $1 million, four-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to support undergraduate science education. The grant will fund initiatives in four main areas: interdisciplinary research opportunities for undergraduate students, faculty and curriculum development, and pre-college outreach. The Wooster grant was one of 48, totaling $60 million, announced today by HHMI, and the only one awarded to an Ohio school.

The grant will build on the success of the college’s HHMI Summer Scholars program, which, over the past three summers, has allowed more than 60 Wooster students to work on research projects with faculty members from the college as well as from the Cleveland Clinic and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.   The new grant will support 15 more students each summer. They will work in teams of two or more faculty and one to four students to explore a research problem, with priority given to “high risk/high reward” interdisciplinary projects.

The grant will also allow the college to offer two-year appointments to four recent Ph.D.s who are considering careers at undergraduate institutions. The individuals in these post-doctoral positions will teach one course per semester, conduct research, and learn to mentor students in their own research endeavors. The experience they gain will enrich their teaching and advising of undergraduate science students whether they remain at Wooster or move on to tenure-track positions at other colleges.

Because the complex nature of many biomedical research problems requires investigators in a variety of scientific disciplines to work together, and because they must share a common understanding of one another’s disciplines to do so effectively, the grant also will support the development of interdisciplinary courses and course modules that will infuse biology courses with physical science and quantitative methods, and physical science courses with biological concepts.

The fourth grant-supported initiative will leverage Wooster’s strength in undergraduate research to help attract and retain underrepresented students who have expressed an interest in the sciences. The college will provide 10 Summer Early Engaged Research (SEER) fellowships to graduating high school seniors who have been accepted at Wooster and have expressed interest in a scientific field. Each SEER fellow will spend four weeks on campus working with a faculty-student research team in biology, chemistry, physics, geology, psychology, or mathematics and computer science. Each fellow will be matched with an upper-class student mentor who will assist in integrating the new student into the team.

“We are thrilled to be one of the 48 colleges and universities chosen by the Institute to receive this generous support,” said Grant H. Cornwell, Wooster’s president. “For 60 years, undergraduate research has been the centerpiece of the Wooster curriculum, and we have developed an extensive infrastructure of coursework, faculty expertise, financial support and institutional culture to nurture it. The Institute’s support allows us to utilize that infrastructure to build bridges between scientific disciplines and further enhance undergraduate science education.”

HHMI is the nation’s largest private supporter of science education. It has invested more than $1.2 billion in grants to reinvigorate life science education at both research universities and liberal arts colleges and to engage the nation’s leading scientists in teaching.

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for an innovative curriculum that emphasizes mentored independent research. Each Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 1,800 students.