University of Connecticut Seeks to Recruit Minority Students to Expand Science Education
STORRS, Conn.
As it seeks to expand science education, the University of Connecticut is trying to reach more minority students and high schoolers whose parents did not attend college. A recruitment program backed by the National Science Foundation is aimed at helping Connecticut and the United States compete in global markets.
It is being funded by a four-year, $1.5 million grant from the NSF, which has warned that the United States could be at a competitive disadvantage globally in developing new technologies if it fails to bring more students into the sciences, particularly the natural sciences.
Hedley Freake, a professor of nutritional science at UConn, says the key to reversing that trend is to tap into student populations underrepresented in higher education and particularly in science. Those populations include minorities, students whose parents did not go to college and children from lower-income families.
The NSF grant to Freake will help launch a program between UConn and community colleges to provide students with academic support and encouragement to pursue a career in the natural sciences. It also includes mentoring.
The three participating community colleges are Three Rivers in Norwich, Quinebaug Valley in Killingly and Manchester Community College. The grant program will be extended to a fifth year, with an additional $500,000, if it attracts students and keeps them in college.
