ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which writing programs not only can but must work to advance their institutional mission statements by designing and offering STEAM-focused projects, courses, and curricula. While the acronym STEAM centralizes the critical nature of reading, writing, and the arts in advancing the goals of STEM education, compositionists often face pushback from administrators and faculty when such propositions are made, even when tied to institutional mission statements. Autoethnographic case studies will be used to illustrate how integrating STEAM into writing courses can support students in attaining “a foundation of knowledge and skills so that they may become imaginative thinkers and successful problem solvers,” as indicated in the mission statement of SUNY Farmingdale (Farmingdale State College), the largest college of applied science and technology in the State University of New York system. The chapter will conclude with suggestions for how compositionists can advance a STEAM-focused approach, including surveys from corporate America identifying insufficient writing proficiency as a perennial top concern of employers as well as research on how STEM disciplines have suffered in recent decades, in part, due to scientists’ general inability to communicate the importance of their work to the general American public.
