This is a good news blog. It reports on a challenge that Georgetown has known it can tackle and a wonderful alumni gift that will allow it to do so.
We at Georgetown have demonstrated exemplary success at recruiting very strong students whose circumstances have not provided the advantages that other students have enjoyed. Many have come from weaker secondary schools and a range of challenging circumstances. All have exceled to meet the high standards of Georgetown. Through the Community Scholars Program (CSP) and the Georgetown Scholarship Program (GSP), among others, we have demonstrated the ability to create and sustain strong academic and social support systems to assure the academic and formative success of such students. It’s one of the best things we do here.
But there has long been a very particular challenge we (and in many ways the whole nation) have not yet met. We’ve all read about the need for building the nation’s talent in sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematical sciences. The need is especially critical among traditionally underrepresented groups. The dearth of strong science teachers and lack of science infrastructure in many high schools have led to smaller numbers of students choosing the sciences in college. This is then compounded by the steep challenge of STEM education in college. The lower numbers of such groups entering those fields leads to a lack of role models for the next generation, a vicious cycle that must be broken. Georgetown can help break this cycle.
Through the wonderful generosity of Joe Zimmel (C’75) and Alison Lohrfink Blood (B’81), we will establish the Regents Science Scholars Program. The program will expand the number of science students who are part of Community Scholars upon entering Georgetown. Then after completing an intensive summer residency and their first academic year in good standing they will be invited to become “Regents Science Scholars.” In their second summer, they will be offered specially designed online programming that reinforces core science principles and sustains a sense of community. Following the lessons of GSP, the program establishes peer and faculty mentoring communities to help students excel in Georgetown’s rigorous curriculum in these fields. To underscore the honor of participating in the Regents Scholars Program, the students each will receive a $500 fellowship.
Thus, the program will really start before students begin their first year, with science classroom and research experiences offered in the summer. In that sense, the program takes advantage of the wider effort to integrate research experiences with learning. Over the second summer the students will have access to online experiences that reinforce the learning of their first year. In that sense, the program uses new technology in novel ways to help reinforce the mentoring learning experiences on the Hilltop. They return in the fall to the continued support of peer and faculty mentoring. Through that, the students enjoy a network of supporters that can sustain them through graduation.
The program is an example of a truly integrative initiative: it connects the best of our established support systems and expands this network with innovative academic approaches that take advantage of new learning environments. The program is also an example of the medical center and main campus collaboration, as faculty and students in Nursing and Health Studies will join with main campus science departments in sustaining the program. Meeting the challenge of first-gen students in the sciences requires the efforts of many players across many boundaries.
Professor Heidi Elmendorf, a biologist and Director of Science Education Outreach, will lead the program. Professor Elmendorf has devoted much energy to improving the learning experiences in the sciences at Georgetown. This will continue her success in this realm.
It is sometimes said that Georgetown is a family of alumni, faculty, staff, and students. The new Regents Science Scholars program is a wonderful coming-together of the family to help form the scientists of the next generation. We owe our deepest gratitude to Joe Zimmel and Alison Lohrfink Blood.
Great post. The gift is wonderful, the initiative is wonderful, and the new online tools for these students will no doubt be great. Having already mentored many dozens of undergrads in the sciences, I would add that, especially for science students, learning to do research takes place in a real research environment. Currently we have a shortage in such environments even for the students we already have. Thus, in our enthusiasm for such innovative programs, I sincerely hope we do not forget that the “engine” for any significant success in such things ultimately lies in healthy, high quality, research infrastructure. Real research infrastructure, not only online infrastructure; young scientists learn science by doing science. They need bona fide projects (preferably on the cutting edge), Ph.D. student colleagues to help train them in new techniques, and highly productive, well funded scientists willing and able to provide supportive environments to undergraduates. Our challenges and difficulty in building and sustaining quality science infrastructure that is commensurate with our peers are legendary. Our students (and these new students) deserve our best, renewed, efforts in meeting those challenges.
Best
Paul