Local university benefits from grant pair

  • 2015-10-18
Two grants totaling $3.6m have been awarded to Winston-Salem State University (WSSU).

One grant will be used to improve national park visitors’ understanding of science, while the other will go to help increase the number of rehabilitation professionals available to work in rural areas.

The first grant was from the National Science Foundation in the amount of $2.6m. The money will be used to expand a project called ‘Interpreters and Scientists Working on Our Parks’, or ‘iSWOOP’, that is underway in six national parks.

iSWOOP is a collaboration among the National Parks Service, experts from the Technical Education Research Center, and researchers from WSSU. A university faculty member, Louise Allen, said that more than 290 million people visit the national parks every year, but know little about the many research projects being conducted within them. The iSWOOP project hopes to interest visitors in these studies, increase their understanding of science, and encourage a deeper connection with nature.

The second grant of $1m was provided to WSSU researchers by the U.S. Department of Education. The money would help train rehabilitation counseling students and provide them with the attitudes, skills, and knowledge necessary to help people with disabilities to get jobs, particularly in rural areas.

University officials might consider working with brochure printers to develop a booklet about the grants and the programs they fund, and make the booklet available to potential students.