NSF Award
0731544
KENNETH SAJWAN Savannah State University<br/><br/><br/>Dr. Sajwan has established a visionary mentoring program at Savanna State University, an HBCU with over 3000 students. Dr. Sajwan's work is focused on increasing the quality of students and their commitment to earning undergraduate and graduate STEM degrees. Through the years he has secured support in creative ways to pursue this line of work. His students are involved in high-quality research experiences that have led to numerous peer-reviewed publications. He has mentored students for the past fifteen years. Of the 58 students he has personally mentored and advised all have successfully graduated with a B.S. degree in Environmental Science. 30 of these have worked with him on funded research, 14 have gone on to pursue Masters Degrees, and two have gone on to pursue Ph.D. students has completed a Post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University Medical School. He has also authored or co-authored 113 publications with his students. These include three book chapters, 35 peer reviewed research articles, twenty conference proceedings, and 55 abstracts of work presented as national or international meetings. Additionally, he has mentored 150 K-12 science teachers in coastal ecology; 150 high school students in science disciplines through his secondary school mentor-mentee partnership; 45 special needs high school students needing computational literacy and employability skills; and 250 K-12 science teachers who were funded by the Department of Energy to engage in community environmental justice activities.<br/><br/>Dr. Sajwan's work has produced a more diversified group of young scientists who are prepared to pursue graduate degrees and careers in STEM. The desired impact is that these young underrepresented scientists will have a multiplier effect as role models, and mentors for other underrepresented minorities in STEM. His mentoring has touched all levels of the STEM pipeline and been multiplied by his work with K-12 teachers.
