Stephanie Couch, the newly appointed Interim Director of the Institute for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education at CSU East Bay, plans to use the next year to expand career opportunities for students by enhancing skills she feels will elevate each student to a higher caliber of success.
Animated and passionate, Couch expresses her excitement over the institute and her delight in sharing the endless opportunities STEM will create for students.
“I would hope that if we were to fast forward five years into the future, that you would see great work taking place in every college on this campus that has a little flavor of STEM worked into it,” said Couch. “STEM will create some great things for our students and this campus, and my hope is that every single student benefits endlessly from this.”
The institute, which Couch hopes to have the full launch in three to four months, will work directly with faculty at CSUEB to develop and create ways to incorporate science, math and technology into their curriculums.
Technology is not just for students majoring in those related fields, Couch expressed, rather it is a tool each student, ranging from Music to Economics, needs to be effectual in to increase their chances of a good job upon graduation.
As Couch says, we are rapidly becoming a digital nation, and graduates who have a rich STEM-based curriculum increase their chances of getting in-demand jobs.
As director, Couch will also help create and develop CSUEB ties with local school districts, focusing on serving underserved students and teachers in order to bring the nation back into high sciences and math, she says, are vitally important to the growth of our nation so it can truly be competitive in the global economy.
“Our future in this nation does depend on our success here in the work in the institute,” said Couch. “We are only one player, but we’re a significant part of changing or providing what’s needed for the next generation.
“So I would hope everyone who graduates from Cal State East Bay is going to be part of the solution that the nation needs,” enunciated Couch.
The STEM initiative, an idea which in the last decade has been sweeping college campuses and school districts across the nation with the ultimate goal to grow the proficiency level of students in sciences and mathematics, has been a controversial issue at CSUEB since its inception.
Many students studying outside a STEM degree have expressed in recent years their concern over whether the initiative will push them aside in funding and offered classes, fearful liberal arts students will be left out.
Yet Couch says STEM will serve to enhance all fields and programs, ultimately expressing her appointment and the progression of the STEM institute as something every student at CSUEB should be excited for.
“If we can expose students to some great learning opportunities, they may discover that it is in fact interesting and they may discover that this campus offers them everything that they need to pursue that path and to be successful in it,” she said. Couch’s first goal is to work with faculty and students on developing the framework for the center, finalizing a formal plan and proposal.
The institute will coordinate existing programs in STEM education at CSUEB such as Gateways to develop new research and projects, solving the problem as early as possible.
Couch believes CSUEB is the innovator the East Bay community has been in need of, and hopes industry leaders in the East Bay will support the initiative to assist in the advancement of science and math in America.
“I am hoping that we build a culture of innovation on the campus that includes these kinds of ways of thinking that are predominant in the STEM disciplines so that the students that we graduate from this campus can be leaders in whatever field they go into,” said Couch.
With a long history in education, politics and developing STEM curriculums at previous institutions, Couch is confident the institute will be a much needed addition to the CSUEB and greater East Bay community.
The STEM program will be an addition that in the coming year will see an advancement of quality in education and bring CSUEB into the 21st century.
“My hope is that we would regularly be producing every graduate would have a little bit better understanding, and be a better spokesperson in this world in their own emphasis in life,” said Couch.
“That’s the job here at this college is to understand where students are at and how to give them the most opportunities to grow all of their strengths so they can look back and know their time was worth it, and their education was valued.”
