The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the Rochester
(N.Y.) City School District have teamed with the National Action
Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) to offer the Engineering
Vanguard Program — an initiative aimed at increasing the number of
minority students seeking engineering careers.
Instead of relying on standardized tests, the program uses an
assessment process to determine potential for academic success.
Qualifying students receive intense academic preparation in high school
and full tuition and housing scholarships for college.
Rochester is the fourth city to become involved in the NACME
program since the initiative’s inception in 1994. The other cities
involved are New York, Houston, and Philadelphia.
“Engineers are educated, not born,” says George Campbell Jr.,
NACME’s president and CEO. “Our goal … is to create a rich, deeply
stimulating academic environment — one that places a premium on both
diversity and achievement.”
For more information, contact RIT’s Kathy Lindsley at (716) 475-5061; or get in touch with NACME at (212) 279-2626.
Cornell University’s Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences,
located in New York City, has established an internship program for the
training of underrepresented minority college students in the
biomedical sciences.
Besides gaining hands-on basic research experience at either Weill
Medical College or the Sloan-Kettering Institute, students are also
required to participate in a seminar course on career opportunities for
doctorates.
