TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | APRIL 8-14, 2022 2
BY ISABEL SONG BEER
LaGuardia Community College
(LaGuardia) and Queens
College (QC) have collaborated
to launch Queens STEM Academy
(Q-STEM), to prepare and
encourage thousands of Latinx
and low-income students to enter
STEM (science, technology, engineering
and mathematics) fields.
The collaboration, announced
March 21, was made
possible by a $4.6 million grant
from the U.S Department of
Education (U.S. DOE) and will
prepare thousands of Latinx,
low-income and underserved
students with invaluable education
and career opportunities to
break into technologically motivated
fields.
Together, LaGuardia and
QC have launched Q-STEM
Academy with the intention of
recruiting students from underrepresented
communities to
have opportunities to major in
STEM, while streamlining the
transfer process for LaGuardia
students to attend QC as well as
enhancing STEM programs at
LaGuardia.
“We are thrilled to partner
with Queens College on this
initiative and are grateful for
the U.S. Department of Education’s
support that is making
the Queens STEM Academy
possible,” LaGuardia President
Kenneth Adams said. “LaGuardia
produces more STEM graduates
than any other community
college in the CUNY system, and
this grant will help to attract
even more students to our stellar
programs. Jobs in STEM, where
there’s high demand and financial
rewards, are possible for so
many of our Queens residents.
Q-STEM will provide students
the education and support they
need to succeed, while addressing
employers’ urgent calls for
an expanded workforce of wellprepared
STEM experts.”
This new LaGuardia-QC initiative
aims to exponentially increase
the numbers of LaGuardia
graduates who go on to then
attend QC to pursue bachelor’s
degrees. The initiative hopes to
form a sort of pipeline for students
who otherwise would be
unlikely to have the abilities to
pursue STEM opportunities to
attend a high school, attend a
community college, then gain
an undergraduate degree, all at
institutions that would provide
quality STEM-related education.
“Queens College is delighted
to partner with LaGuardia Community
College in preparing Hispanic
and low-income students
to enter STEM-related fields,”
said QC President Frank H. Wu.
“As New York looks to rebound
from the pandemic, there will
be opportunities in every sector
of the economy for people with
this kind of education. Strengthening
the STEM pipeline in the
borough will benefit everyone.”
BY BILL PARRY
Dozens of volunteers from the
New York City Plover Project and
Gateway National Recreation
Area last weekend installed
miles of symbolic fencing at Fort
Tilden and Breezy Point to protect
nesting habitats for endangered
piping plovers and other atrisk
migratory shorebirds. The
stringline is “symbolic” in that
it is not an actual barrier, but an
important one to alert humans
not to enter these areas.
In early spring, the tiny birds
fly thousands of miles from
the warm shores of the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean to
the shores of New York Harbor.
They make their summer homes
hidden within the dunes of Gateway’s
beaches along the western
end of the Rockaway Peninsula.
With less than 8,000 piping plovers
left globally, the birds are
protected under the federal Endangered
Species Act of 1973.
The NYC Plover Project was
founded last year as an independent
nonprofit organization
bringing together residents of
the Rockaways and other communities
that line the shorelines
of Jamaica Bay to help protect
the birds in partnership with
Gateway National Recreation
Center, the Audubon Society,
the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Park
Conservancy and other area organizations.
“We are so incredibly grateful
to our volunteers for coming out
to install beach fencing and signage,
to alert beachgoers to our
visiting migratory shorebirds,”
NYC Plover Project Founder
Chris Allieri said. “I think many
people are surprised when they
learn that just under 100 piping
plovers nested in the Rockaways
during 2020 and 2021.”
As of March 15, the beach
rules changed back to protect
nesting piping plovers and other
shorebirds, meaning no dogs,
kite-flying, fishing, surfing and
beach bathing in designated
nesting areas. According to the
National Parks Service, which
administers Gateway National
Recreation Area, piping
plover chicks need to increase
their weight five times within
several weeks of hatching so
that they’ll be able to thrive
and fly. They need access to
the shoreline to feed in order
to achieve the necessary
weight gain.
The NPS says the presence
of people on the beach causes
chicks and their parents to expend
energy running up and
down the beach to avoid the
perceived threat. Interruption
in feeding and energy expenditures
prevents chicks from
thriving and leads to chick
mortality.
“Powerful storms, predators
of all types, dogs on the
beach, and of course, us humans,
all contribute to the loss
of nests,” Allieri explained.
“Few plover chicks survive,
and we are here to reverse
that trend. We have seasonal
volunteers who will be out at
the beach each day this season.
We need help.”
To volunteer with the NYC
The NYC Plover Project together with
Gateway National Recreation Area
installed many miles of symbolic
fencing at Fort Tilden and Breezy
Point Tip to protect nesting habitats
for endangered piping plovers and
other at-risk migratory shorebirds.
Photos courtesy of NYC Plover
Plover Project this season,
visit nycploverproject.org/
volunteer. There is an in-person
training at Fort Tilden on April
23. Sign-up is required.
Project
Reach reporter Bill Parry by email
at bparry@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.
Photo via Getty Images
Pair of local colleges
collaborate to launch
Queens STEM Academy
Beach fencing, signage installed
at Fort Tilden, Breezy Point to
protect endangered shorebirds
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