Duke Energy gives $85,000 to STEM summer programs
July 17, 2017
Duke Energy continued its support for two Clemson University programs in 2017 with an $85,000 grant. Both Project WISE, which brings middle schools to campus for a one-week STEM summer camp, and PEER/WISE Experience, which gives 50 incoming freshmen a head start on academics and campus life, are aimed at increasing diversity in the pipeline that carries talent from the classroom to the workplace.
About 60 middle school girls attended Project WISE earlier this summer. This year’s program targeted Title I schools in the Pee Dee, a region where Duke Energy is working to have great impact. Girls attended mini-courses in a range of topics from electrical engineering to computer science, taught by Clemson faculty and staff. Ten undergraduate Clemson students lived in residence halls with the Project WISE girls.
The PEER and WISE Experience began its inaugural three-week run on July 9. It is based on two previous summer “bridge” programs aimed at helping ease students’ transition to college. Students are studying college calculus, physics and chemistry and learning about research, graduate school and success strategies, such as time management.
They live in the residence halls and have a chance to build relationships that can help carry them through college. The program gives students a chance to begin finding their way around Clemson’s 17,000-acre main campus. Students also meet alumni, providing them role models to emulate.
Duke Energy has helped fund this program for the past 20 years, along with Clemson’s Emerging Scholars program and the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.
For more information, visit: http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/duke-energy-gives-85000-to-stem-summer-programs.