Noyce Award Commitments

The Boston University Preparation of Noyce Science Teachers (PONST) scholarship award for a full-time enrolled student in the MAT Program in Science Education pays for summer tuition for ten credits and one-third of the academic year tuition for two semesters for Noyce Scholars to earn a MAT degree to teach science. The Boston University Wheelock College of Education commitment to Noyce Scholars supplements the Noyce Scholarship with a 2/3 scholarship for two semesters of academic year tuition. The combination of these two scholarships pays for full tuition for the MAT program.

Career changers coming from the sciences or engineering who choose the part-time EdM with teaching licensure can receive part or all of their tuition through the Noyce Scholarship depending on how their program is timed. This tuition support must occur over a period of no more than one calendar year.

For undergraduate Noyce Scholars, Project PoNST pays for the ten credits of the summer session required courses plus a portion of the student’s tuition for the senior year. The size of the Noyce tuition payment may vary with the student’s university determined financial package.

In return, the following is expected of Noyce Scholars:

1. Project PoNST MAT Noyce Scholars must complete their program within the one-year of Noyce Scholarship support (a summer term consecutive with two academic year semesters). Scholars who begin in the summer must finish the program for the following year’s May graduation. Scholars who begin in fall will graduate in the summer of the following year.
2. Project PoNST undergraduate Noyce Scholars must complete their program during the summer between their junior and senior years, and during their senior year. Undergraduate Noyce Scholars are expected to graduate in May of the year following the summer in which they began the PoNST Program.
3. After graduation, Noyce Scholars are required to spend two years teaching in a high need district. The Scholars are responsible for finding their own employment in such a district. A good faith effort is expected by the Scholar to find employment in a high need district. If the Scholar cannot find employment in a high need district in the first or succeeding years after graduation, then the Scholar must document this. Such documentation might take the form of copies of multiple rejection letters from high need schools. The Scholar has 4 years after graduation to complete the two-year service requirement in a high need district. If a Scholar does not complete the requirement of teaching in a high need school, the Scholar is required to repay the portion of the scholarship that was paid for with Noyce funds.
4. The Noyce Scholar will sign a promissory note to Boston University to the effect that the Scholar understands their obligation to repay the Noyce Scholarship money if the Noyce Scholar does not fulfill the obligation of teaching for two years in a high need district.