Local colleges offer free courses for high-schoolers this summer

Saturday, April 07, 2007



Cleveland State University and the University of Akron are offering free summer sessions for high school students as part of the state's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) initiative. Not only can students walk away with college credits for the intensive programs, but UA also has jobs for teachers.

Fifty high school juniors and seniors will be selected for a Chinese Academy at Cleveland State. (The "L" for language must not have fit into the acronym.)



The academy is free and includes tuition, lunches and textbooks. Students will earn three semester hours of college credit for the three-week session, which runs June 20 to July 11. Applications are due May 1.

Cleveland State, Ohio State and Miami universities are sharing a $340,000 grant to host the Chinese academies.

For more information, call 216-687-4645 or e-mail modlang@csuohio.edu.

Meanwhile at the UA, a Math Academy is not only free but also offers high school juniors and seniors $500 upon completion of the program. Students will live in an Akron residence hall at no cost and will get four hours of college credit.

An even better deal is available to teachers willing to help the UA faculty. High school teachers accepted to the program will get $4,000 and four hours of graduate credits. Applications for the UA program are due April 15. For details, go to www.uakron.edu/colleges/artsci/stemacad, or call 330-972-8006. Expect to hear lots more talk about STEM as the initiative gains traction and as local colleges start spending some of the grant money they have received for it. Oberlin College and Kent State and Bowling Green State universities also have been chosen for foreign-language academies. Hiram College, UA and KSU will come together for a science offering, as will Lakeland Community College, John Carroll University and Youngstown State University.

Related to STEM's goals, but not part of the state initiative, is a big grant that OSU's agricultural research center at Wooster just received from the National Science Foundation. The campus got $2.9 million to work with elementary and high school teachers to improve science teaching.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jokoben@plaind.com, 216-999-4535.