Title: Introducing Under Represented Students To Research Through Funded Programs
Abstract: Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 2313 Introducing Under-represented Students to Research Through Funded Programs Deran Hanesian, Angelo Perna New Jersey Institute of Technology Abstract A good source of both graduate and undergraduate students to assist with or develop “research” efforts is from programs designed to introduce under-represented students to research. Some of these programs available to students are the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (GEM), Alliances for Minority Participation (AMP), and Minority Academic Career (MAC) to name a few. In order for faculty to work with students in these types of programs, they must be aware of the students who are eligible for or in these programs. In addition, an awareness, by both students and program coordinators, of which individual faculty are interested in the mentoring program, is imperative. At New Jersey Institute of Technology, the authors not only meet the above requirements, but are also involved with programs for minority students K to 12. These efforts which have led to enrollment of students at NJIT, have raised the profile and familiarity of the faculty by students from these programs and led to mentoring involvements. Over the past three years a number of students, both graduate and undergraduate who are in various programs have worked with the authors in numerous “research” projects. These experiences have been rewarding and fulfilling to both constituencies. Introduction New Jersey Institute of Technology is an inner city urban institution located in Newark, New Jersey with a social, economic, and academically diverse student body consisting of 5007 undergraduate and 2830 graduate students. The undergraduate population is approximately composed of one third (women, Hispanic, and Afro-American) minority. NJIT has a long history of outreach programs for elementary through college level students with many originating in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry over the past 30 plus years. It is therefore not unusual to find departmental faculty being involved in the development and teaching of various minority outreach programs. Some programs that the authors have developed curriculum for are: 1. Upward Bound Program in Math and Science 2. Females in Engineering: Methods, Motivation, and Experience (FEMME) 3. Chemical Industry for Minorities in Engineering (CHIME)