JCSU News Release
A bridge for tech and science studies
Historically black N.C. schools partner with 4
universities in Virginia
by Dionne Walker
 Associated
Press
Four historically black colleges and universities in North
Carolina will partner with four majority white counterparts
in Virginia to try and double the average number of
minorities completing degrees in science, technology,
engineering and math.
The VA-NC Alliance for Minority Participation -- which
includes Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte -- will
combine university exchange programs with intensified,
personal instruction. The goal: to bring the number of
black, Latino and American Indian tech graduates to 1,050
over the next five years.
The University of Virginia in Charlottesville will lead the
program, supported by a $5 million grant from the National
Science Foundation.
"We must receive the talent from whatever source, whatever
part of our country that is available. You never know where
the next Nobel prize laureate will come from," said A. James
Hicks, who has helped organize similar alliances involving
37 states.
Along with JCSU, N.C. participants include Bennett College
for Women in Greensboro; Elizabeth City State University and
Saint Augustine's College in Raleigh.
At JCSU, the effort means the school will offer a summer
immersion program teaching students better study habits. The
new program also will provide formal opportunities to share
resources, said biology professor B.K. Chopra.
"It's going to place many of these students in several
research programs during the summer and eventually into
graduate programs where we desperately need minorities," he
said.
In Virginia, participants include UVA, George Mason
University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia
Tech.
Of almost 4,500 science, technology, engineering and math --
or STEM -- degrees that the eight schools conferred between
2001 and 2005, 12 percent went to blacks, Latinos or
American Indians.
"All the schools have had some participation in this area
and we've all done some things, but what this enables us to
do is to work collectively," said Carolyn Vallas, director
of UVA's Center for Diversity in Engineering.
Schools will organize high-school outreach programs aimed at
recruiting and retaining minorities in science and
engineering, Vallas said.
Students also may spend time at other alliance campuses. For
instance, a student from Bennett might live in a George
Mason dorm while interning in technology-rich Washington,
D.C.
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JCSU consistently ranks among the top southern
comprehensive colleges and universities as
reported by U.S. News & World Report.
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Alliance students also will meet periodically to share
what they've learned -- a chance for minorities in
largely white-identified majors to bond.
It's a support system acutely missing at some
predominantly white institutions, said Darryl Dickerson,
chairman of the National Society of Black Engineers, and
a biomedical engineering student at Indiana's Purdue
University.
"Minority students, particularly at (white) majority
institutions, they're already isolated," Dickerson said.
"At the very beginning, you're thinking you're on the
chopping block."
The National Science Foundation has increasingly turned
to blacks, Latinos and American Indians as it attempts
to boost the number of students earning scientific
degrees. Asians are considered better-represented in the
STEM fields.
STEM degrees can translate into high-paying jobs, from
engineering anti-terrorism measures to building the next
iPhone.
But minorities tend not to be interested when their only
image of a scientist is "an older white male with
glasses and a white coat on," Hicks said.
Creating a community among minority STEM majors would
help current majors excel, and pull new ones in, Hicks
said.
"When (minority students) are brought together in a sort
of nurturing environment, we see what happens," he said.
"And what happens is that students from these targeted
groups will perform and perform very well."
At JCSU, Shenita Richardson was one of a handful of
students listening as Chopra explained the day's lesson
recently.
The graduating senior was excited about the school's new
immersion program and the leg up it would mean for the
students coming behind her.
"When I was a freshman, I wasn't prepared," she said. "I
thought it was gonna be easy."
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