Bellevue College President Dr. David Rule joined President Obama, the First Lady, and Vice President Biden along with hundreds of college presidents and other higher education leaders on Dec. 4, 2014 to announce new actions to help more students prepare for and graduate from college.
The White House College Opportunity Day of Action helps to support the President’s commitment to partner with colleges and universities, business leaders, and nonprofits to support students across the country to help our nation reach its goal of leading the world in college attainment.
Through this event, Bellevue College committed to creating more opportunities for students to engage in STEM education and pursue careers in STEM-related fields.
BC is working toward this goal through the creation of the BC RISE (Research, Innovation, Service and Experiential Learning) Institute, the construction of a state-of-the-art 70,000-square-foot health sciences building, and robust programming in healthcare careers, including three bachelor degrees, six associate’s degrees, and numerous certificates.
“STEM education is vital to our future—the future of our country, the future of our region and the future of our children,” Rule said. “The U.S. Labor Department predicts the 10 fastest growing occupations from 2008-2018 to be STEM-related and with median salaries that will help fuel our economy! At Bellevue College, we’ve taken these trends to heart; we’re actively working to meet these current and future needs.”
White House Day of Action participants were asked to commit to new action in one of four areas: building networks of colleges around promoting completion, creating K-16 partnerships around college readiness, investing in high school counselors as part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative, and increasing the number of college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
– by Evan Epstein
Last Updated October 3, 2016