DaytonDailyNews.com

FAIRBORN — Eight Miami Valley colleges and universities will share $3.94 million in funding for scholarships in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine, also referred to as STEM.

The state funding translates into 1,000 scholarships in the second round of funding for the Choose Ohio First Scholarship Program awarded by the Ohio Board of Regents on Thursday, June 26. It ranges from $1,500 to $4,700 for local students participating in the targeted fields at the eight institutions.

"This is another way for us to attract these talented students to our universities ... and keep them right here in the Dayton region," Wright State University President David Hopkins said.

The eight-member Dayton Regional Collaborative includes Wright State University, as lead institution, the University of Dayton, Wittenberg and Central State universities, as well as Clark State, Sinclair, Edison and Southern State community colleges.

The partnership also includes multiple businesses and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which is expected to gain 1,200 STEM-related jobs as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005.

Of those 1,200 positions relocating to the base, only 10 percent of the incumbents are expected to move with those positions, said Lillie Howard, Wright State's senior vice president for curriculum and instruction.

"What we agreed to do as a collaborative is work to prepare the workforce for those vacancies that will exist," she said.

The scholarships could be available as soon as this fall, Howard said.