Fairmont State University receives grants for civic engagement and STEM opportunities

Fairmont State University has recently received two separate grants that will help it develop a civic engagement infrastructure and provide STEM education opportunities to local middle schoolers. The two grants come from the Institute of Citizens and Scholars Campuswide Immersion and NASA’s West Virginia Space Grant Consortium.

According to an article on Fairmont State University's website that discusses the $10,000 Institute of Citizens and Scholars Campuswide Immersion grant, Dr. Samantha Godbey, who serves as the Director of the Fairmont State University Civics Institute, was quoted as saying, “Before we can strengthen how students learn to find and evaluate credible information, we need an honest picture of where that learning is already happening. This grant gives us the chance to gather data specific to Fairmont State, so that every program the Civics Institute builds is grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.”

Thanks to the grant funding, the university’s Civics Institute will be able to hire a Civic Fellow for the Spring 2027 semester. This individual will provide Civics Institute leadership with a report about where students are taught about credible versus not credible information. This report will allow leadership to ensure that all of the university’s civics programming is evidence-based. The grant will also allow for the redesign of introductory-level civics programs to include topics like civil discourse and credible information, and collaborative problem-solving skills. 

These efforts will ensure that students are being introduced to civic engagement topics and opportunities early in their college careers, and, thanks to the Institute for Citizens and Scholars Campuswide Immersion program, all students will be able to receive this education, not only the students who seek it out.

The other recent grant award comes from NASA’s West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, which provided the university’s College of Science and Technology Education Resource Center with $2,000 to host a NASA Day event for middle school students. The NASA Day event will introduce local 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to topics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and introduce them to STEM career pathways.

According to an article on Fairmont State University’s website about the NASA grant, Todd Ensign, Ed.D., STEM Outreach Specialist, was quoted as saying, "Programs such as NASA Day can provide a spark that ignites the imagination of our students and introduces them to a wide range of local companies, universities, and government agencies performing advanced manufacturing or aviation maintenance, and even supporting NASA missions.”

The North Central West Virginia NASA Day will take place on Friday, April 9, 2027 at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center. It will include learning opportunities with robot programming, air rockets, a planetarium presentation, 3D printing, microcontroller demonstrations, and balsa airplanes. Students will also learn about NASA's Dragonfly Mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan, through a presentation from Dr. Scott Murchie from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. 

For more information about Fairmont State University, visit the school’s website.