As an undergraduate entomology major at the University of Kentucky, Erica Knorpp worked as a teaching assistant and interned with the Kentucky Forest Leadership Program, where she helped high school students identify insects.
So she was torn between pursuing science education and science outreach when she started looking at graduate programs. Then she learned about
the Noyce Knights Scholars Program at Bellarmine.
"I'm literally getting paid to do what I want to do as a career!"
The program prepares science and mathematics teachers for high-need middle and high school settings—and thanks to a generous grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), it covers Noyce Knights Scholars’ total cost of attendance after
financial aid is applied.
Knorpp decided to enroll as a Noyce Knights Scholar, pursuing a
Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT). She plans to teach high school biology or middle school science.
“The Noyce Knights Scholars Program convinced me to take the MAT route by demonstrating how valued inquiry in STEM is to the educators in this community,” she said.
Bellarmine is now accepting applications for the second cohort of Noyce Knights Scholars under the five-year, $1.45 million NSF grant. Classes will begin in Fall 2023.
Students like Knorpp with undergraduate degrees in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Biochemistry/Microbiology, Environmental Science, Computer Science or another STEM-related field who enroll in the traditional two-year MAT program receive funding
of $29,000 in the second year, which covers full MAT graduate tuition and fees ($24,840) for the two years plus $4,200 for miscellaneous expenses.
There are two other pathways to the program: the early entry MAT program, in which undergraduates enter the program in their senior year and complete the MAT by the end of their fifth year, also receiving $29,000; and the undergraduate pathway, where
students earn
a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and Mathematics,
which also fulfills the requirements for the bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.
The latter is the pathway that Will Baxter is following. He has known he wanted to teach since his first year of high school.
“I found out about the Noyce program through my advisor in Bellarmine's Department of Education and decided to apply because it would pay for me to become a high school math teacher, my dream career,” he said. Noyce Knight Scholars on the
undergraduate path receive a maximum of $19,200 for their junior and senior years, for a maximum total amount of $38,400.
“The program has been amazing so far,” he said. “I've learned about many resources and strategies that I can use in my future math classes. I met many teachers at this year's regional [Noyce] meeting in Lexington, and they shared some
of their experiences in the classroom with me. Also, I'm literally getting paid to do what I want to do as a career!”
Other networking activities for Noyce Knight Scholars include an annual Noyce Maker Fair, a paid internship at the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville, and a funded summer workshop in collaboration with the University of Kentucky’s Noyce program.
Scholars must commit to teaching in a high-need middle or high school for two years for each year of funding once they complete the program.
For more information, contact Dr. Kristin Cook, associate dean of Bellarmine’s School of Education, at
kcook@bellarmine.edu.