MULTICULTURAL STUDENTS AT UVM THIS SUMMER ARE INVOLVED IN RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIPM
SESP is UVM´s premier multicultural student retention program. The Summer Enrichment Scholarship Program provides a quality learning experience for incoming students. Eleven first-year students are living in residence halls, attending classes, making friends and enjoying extracurricular activities on weekends while getting a quick start in their high school-to-college transition. Five returning students in the program are enhancing their study skills and their grade-point averages while sharing experiences with the new students.
The SESP students are taking two courses each from an array of choices including speech, english, sociology, math and physical education. The participants come from as far as California and as near as Essex Junction and East Calais.
RAP is the Research Apprentice Program funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1984. Fourteen high school students entering their senior year are working on research projects with professors in the colleges of Medicine and Agriculture & Life Sciences, and in the schools of Natural Resources and of Allied Health Sciences.
These are some of the "best and brightest" students nationwide, according to Rodney Patterson, director of Multicultural Affairs and RAP program director. The program introduces the students to scientific research in hopes of initiating early interest.
Since RAP´s creation in 1984, four participants have attended UVM.
VISIT, the Vermont Initiative for Summer Intensive training, brings minority undergraduate students to UVM for 10 weeks through Aug. 7. Zoology professor Joan Herbers is directing the program with $50,000 granted by the U.S. Department of Education.
Each VISITor is assigned to a faculty member who is actively engaged in research. A goal is to encourage the students to continue their graduate studies at UVM.