TERC Scholars Program
On site for up to 10 hours per week, each TERC Scholar becomes an active member of a project team and works under the supervision of the project’s leaders to help advance project goals and gain STEM education knowledge. Scholars engage in authentic research activities, such as classroom data collection, literature syntheses, instrument testing, data coding and analysis, and case study development.
TERC Scholars come from a variety of backgrounds and majors. Each scholar is assigned a mentor who assists them in navigating a professional workplace and guides them toward professional development opportunities.
Quick Facts
Program Dates: Year-round
Location: In-person and/or virtual
Application Opens: Rolling year-round
FAQs: Click here for a complete list of FAQs.
If you’d like more information, please fill out the following form.
Current Scholars and Projects
Claire Shapiro
Middlebury College, Class of 2024; Majors: Economics and English Literature
Mentor: Jodi Asbell-Clarke
Under the guidance of Dr. Asbell-Clarke, Claire supports the work of the INFACT and EdGE groups to promote inclusive models of teaching computational thinking (CT) to elementary and middle school students. She is passionate about education equity, diversifying STEM, and working towards more pluralistic, inclusive education models.
Akiko Voelcker
Bunkerhill Community College, Class of 2022, Major: Entrepreneurship
Mentors: Teresa Lara-Meloy and Christina Silva
Akiko works with the Visualize Teaching project. She assists with collecting, organizing, and cleaning the data received from teacher participants. Akiko is also examining the data and providing insights on what is happening in the classroom and sharing the results with the project team.
Anya Carbonell
Boston University, Class of 2022, Major: Undeclared
Mentors: Audrey Martinez-Gudapakkam and Sabrina De Los Santos
Anya works with the Aprendiendo Project to support Spanish speaking parents through learning pedagogy that will enable them to support preparing their children for learning math in kindergarten. Everyday all parents, regardless of academic background, unknowingly engage in math. Many parents miss opportunities for engaging their young children in rich discussions that support math learning, also known as Math Talk (MT). MT involves discussions about shapes, sizes, spatial relationships, sequencing, and other introductory concepts that are easily applied to getting dressed, organizing laundry, shopping, and other routine daily activities.
Past Scholars and Projects
Angela D’Souza
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, College of Education, Doctoral Student: Mathematics, Science, and Learning Technologies
Research at the intersections of science, technology studies, and environmental studies
Mentors: Mia Ong and Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Angela worked on the Native STEM Portraits (NPS) project which is a longitudinal study on the experiences of Native STEM students, faculty, and professionals and the barriers and supports they encounter in STEM. She also supported the IMS-SEIL project, an institute on qualitative meta-synthesis methods for STEM education graduate students, postdocs, early career researchers, and faculty.
Where are they now? Discover here.
Katie Yao
Boston University, Class of 2021, Major: Health Sciences
Mentors: Gilly Puttick and Santiago Gasca
Katie worked with the Innovate to Mitigate project. In this exploratory study, they report results from an open innovation competition challenging young people age 13-18 to develop a method for carbon mitigation.
Katie’s also worked with Mia Ong and Nuria Jaumot-Pascual to support two projects: Literature Analysis and Synthesis of Women of Color in Technology and Computing (LASOW), and Native American Women and Two-Spirit Individuals in Computing Higher Education: A Photo Elicitation Study of Persistence (NAWC2).
Where are they now? Discover here.
Harry Dam
Boston University, Class of 2021, Major: Economics, Minor: Engineering Sciences
Mentors: Martha Merson
Harry worked on the Interpreters and Scientists Working on Our Parks (iSWOOP) Project which is a multi-faceted project providing professional development for park rangers, developing visual media on park-based scientific topics, and researching park visitors’ interests. Harry supported this project by gathering and synthesizing data for annual reports to funders and advisors, conducted relevant literature reviews for proposals and publications, assisted with the project’s online and social media presence, and supported park rangers with visual aids.
Where are they now? Discover here.
La’Reya Brown
Boston University, Class of 2020, Major: Behavior & Health
Mentors: Eli-Tucker Raymond, Ph.D. & Maria Olivares, Ph.D.
La’Reya supported the Re-Making STEM Project and worked on her own research project as she sought to understand more about youth behavior, emotional well-being, and identity building in academic settings. Her purpose was aimed at understanding youth identity development and learning.
Where are they now? Discover here.
Nicole Shearer
Wheelock College/Boston University, B.S. in Social Work, 2019
Mentors: Karen-Mutch Jones & Judy Storeygard
Nicole supported the Doing the Math Project, which focuses on professional development of mathematics paraeducators in grades K-3. Nicole’s passion for youth advocacy enabled her to greatly strengthen paraeducators knowledge and teaching abilities, who often encounter multiple students with disabilities and those for whom English is a second language. Through the TSP, Nicole broadened opportunities for a diverse range of early childhood learners and improved access to continuing their education.
Where are they now? Discover here.