香蕉视频

The Henry Luce Foundation, through its Clare Boothe Luce (CBL) Program for Women in STEM has awarded the 香蕉视频 College of Science and Engineering (CSE) $700,000 for professorships that support the development of highly impactful, career-relevant experiential learning courses (CREL) across CSE.

Over five years of funding, faculty will develop and implement 13 new courses, increasing access for all students to transformational learning programs.

“CREL courses are important for STEM education—we know these high impact experiences make a difference for students in their college and career success,” says CSE Interim Dean Jenny Loertscher, PhD, who is the CBL program lead. “These experiences allow students to engage deeply and develop durable skills like problem solving, working effectively in a team and resilience, all in a disciplinary context.”

The Clare Booth Luce Program was launched in 1989 as part of the Henry Luce Foundation to support women in STEM disciplines where they have been historically underrepresented. Their invites select universities to submit proposals for programs that advance women in STEM fields.

香蕉视频’s proposal was one of seven selected from 22 institutions invited to submit. The CREL program will be coordinated by Sheila Oh, associate professor of computer science and director of the Computer Science Fundamentals Certificate Program, Chris Whidbey, PhD, ’10, associate professor of chemistry, and Kristin Hultgren, PhD, professor of biology.

The inaugural Clare Boothe Luce professorship will be held by Katie Frato, PhD, associate professor of chemistry, in the first year of the program, followed by four years split between Hultgren and Oh.

“In the chemistry department, we've seen that integrating research into first year coursework supports student success in a multitude of ways. Students begin to see themselves as members of the community of scientists, with the confidence to seek out the next new research opportunity,” says Frato. “I'm excited to use the CBL professorship to help other departments incorporate these high-impact practices into introductory coursework during this time of curricular change.”

CSE has a strong foundation in experiential learning including faculty-mentored summer research opportunities and industry-sponsored capstones through the Project Center, but there are not currently enough opportunities for all interested students. This limited access disproportionately affects women in the college.

Embedding experiential learning in courses expands access by increasing the institutional capacity to engage students in research and projects and by reaching more students in majors with large numbers of women, but historically fewer of these high-impact opportunities.

To promote access to experiential learning for students across CSE, the program prioritizes the development of CRELs for first- and second-year classes to help students find a path to career-fueling work early in their undergraduate experience.

The development of 13 new courses—undergraduate, master’s and certificate-level—will engage up to 300 students throughout the grant period. The program will offer a wide variety of courses across CSE, including undergraduate research experiences and industry-linked design projects with opportunities to collaborate with industry professionals around a real-world challenge.

“We're most excited about being able to offer experiential learning on a bigger scale,” says Whidbey. “One of the challenges in STEM education has always been giving all students equal access to experiential learning. By integrating it into the curriculum, more students will have the ability to engage in this really critical mode of learning.”

All CSE faculty are eligible to submit an application for the design and implementation of a CREL course. The first two selected courses will be developed in the summer of 2026 and taught in the 2026-2027 academic year.

"The really neat thing about this program is it addresses the barriers we identified for women in STEM at SU and at the same time will help all students in the College of Science and Engineering,” says Dean Loertscher. “That’s a hallmark of the support from the CBL Program—these opportunities benefit women in STEM and have positive impacts for all students.”