West Virginia University's Health Sciences and Technology Academy has been awarded a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand its mentoring program for at-risk middle school students, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.
According to WDTV, the mentoring program will pair high school students with at-risk middle school students in the hopes of increasing interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects.
The idea is to teach students about the importance of community health, the Gazette-Mail reports.
According to the program's director, Cathy Morton, high school students will act as mentors for at-risk middle school students and help them develop the skills they'll need to be successful in college.
"They open up that world of science and fun, how exciting it can be, and encourage students to really light that fire for learning," WDTV quotes Morton as saying.
West Virginia has one of the lowest teen unemployment rates in the nation, the Gazette-Mail reports.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, just 11% of high school seniors in West Virginia went on to college last year.
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