Fisk University officials believe in getting young people turned on early to the idea that math is cool. So each summer they host science summer camps for middle school students where they introduce them to the rudiments of technology and engineering and try to interest them in studying the subjects in college.
Fisk also reaches out to high schools. It has a traveling science exhibit that teaches teens about astronomy, specifically about the sky and the stars. Through all these outreach efforts, Fisk officials try to drive home one important point:
“We teach them that, no matter what science you’re talking about, math is really fundamental,” says Dr. Arnold Burger, professor of physics and vice provost of academic initiatives at Fisk University.
The K-12 outreach builds on another legacy that has earned Fisk considerable national attention in recent years: the Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge program. Under this program, students complete their master’s degrees in one of the sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, astrophysics or material science and then go on to Vanderbilt or one of several other universities for their doctorates.
The program currently has about 60 students enrolled, most of whom are from underrepresented groups.
The master’s degree program is rigorous but also is designed with a wide safety net to help those students who enter with deficiencies.
“If students arrive with deficiencies, we put in place interventions,” Burger says. “At the undergraduate level we do the same thing. At the graduate level we have a peer mentoring project. To ensure success we need to establish a community. It takes a village to develop the next generation of leaders.”
