Qualification Requirements:
All students at Crespi receive a STEM education once enrolled in our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses. Students who test highly on the HSPT and the Math and Science Placement Exams will be invited to join the STEM Cohort. Students who did not qualify may apply at the end of either semester of their Freshman year. These students must collect letters of recommendation from both their science and math teachers commenting on their grades, attitudes, interest level, and work ethic.
Grade GPA Requirement:
Students must maintain a 3.0 Average in their Math/Science Courses without receiving any grade lower than a B- in Math or Science. If a student’s cumulative GPA drops below 3.0, the student will be placed on probation for a semester. The student will be encouraged to drop all extracurricular activities, including STEM work until they have shown improvement on the first progress report of the probationary semester.
Research Requirement:
Members of the STEM Cohort will be required to work on a competitive STEM-based project. Students must submit their completed projects to relevant competition organizers by the due deadline with the permission and approval of a STEM teacher.
The project requirements, group participants, and submission deadlines are very diverse with many options to choose from. A research project can be and is encouraged to be, part of a larger study performed by professional scientists, but the project presented by the students must be only their own portion of the complete study.
Students will spend their first three years in the STEM Cohort on their research requirement. During their freshmen year, students will research project ideas and explore potential interest areas and develop a proposal for their research requirement.
It is encouraged that a bulk of their project is performed during their sophomore year so this provides them an extra year to apply for science fairs during Junior year.
STEM Cohort members during the Senior year will focus on mentorship for the younger students. Mentors will be paired with a younger student or student group and will guide them through the process of submitting to a science fair.