Meyerhoff Scholars Program
{{Short description|Program to prepare and support minority students pursuing academic careers in STEM.}}
The Meyerhoff Scholars Program is a program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) designed to prepare minority students for academic careers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. The program has served as a model for developing and supporting minority students pursuing academic careers.{{Cite web|title=A vaunted program for boosting the diversity of U.S. academic scientists is starting to spread|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/vaunted-program-boosting-diversity-us-academic-scientists-starting-spread|access-date=2021-10-14|website=www.science.org|language=en}}
History
The program was founded at the UMBC in 1988 with a $500,000 grant from the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Foundation, under the guidance of future UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III. In the program's first year, it admitted only male African American students; female African American students were admitted in the program's second year. In 1997, the program opened to students of all races who were interested in supporting the advancement of minorities in academia,{{Cite journal|last=Lee|first=Diane M.|date=2013-01-01|title=The Meyerhoff Scholars Program: Changing Minds, Transforming a Campus|url=https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/muj/article/view/20547|journal=Metropolitan Universities|language=en|volume=24|issue=2|pages=55–70|issn=1047-8485}} following the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling the Benjamin Banneker Scholarship Program, another UMBC scholarship which had been only open to African American students, unconstitutional.{{Cite web|last=Denniston|first=David Folkenflik and Lyle|title=Blacks-only aid program dies after justices refuse review COLLEGE PARK'S BANNEKER SCHOLARSHIPS|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-05-23-1995143006-story.html|access-date=2021-10-14|website=baltimoresun.com|language=en-US}}
Education Research
The Meyerhoff Scholars Program is noted for its success in increasing the representation of minority students in STEM.{{cite journal | pmc=3444508 |journal=The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, New York |volume=79 |issue=5 |pages=610–623 |author=Kenneth Maton, Shauna Pollard, Tatiana McDougall Weise, Freeman Hrabowski III |title=Meyerhoff Scholars Program: A Strengths-Based, Institution-Wide Approach to Increasing Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics |publisher=Mt. Sinai Journal of Medicine|year=2012 |pmid=22976367 |doi=10.1002/msj.21341 }} In an attempt to determine whether this model can be replicated at large universities, two scholarships were founded at other universities in 2013: the Chancellor's Science Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Millennium Scholars Program at Pennsylvania State University.{{cite web | url=https://www.aau.edu/education-service/undergraduate-education/stem-education-initiative/stem-framework/chancellors |title=Chancellor's Science Scholars at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |publisher=Association of American Universities}}{{cite web | url=http://www.hhmi.org/news/three-universities-unite-replicate-and-spread-successful-stem-program |title=Three Universities Unite to Replicate and Spread Successful STEM Program |publisher=Howard Hughes Medical Institute}}
Notable alumni
- Jerome Adams: anesthesiologist and the 20th surgeon general of the United States
- Kizzmekia Corbett: viral immunologist at the NIAID (NIH) who helped develop one of the COVID-19 vaccines
- Kafui Dzirasa: psychiatrist and professor at Duke University
- Lola Eniola-Adefeso: Chemical Engineer and the University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan College of Engineering
- Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman: activist, writer, economist, and co-founder and former CEO of the Sadie Collective
- Crystal C. Watkins Johansson: neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males (1998), Freeman A. Hrabowski, Geoffrey L. Greif, Kenneth I. Maton, Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women (2001), Freeman A. Hrabowski, Geoffrey L. Greif, Kenneth I. Maton, Monica L. Greene, Publisher: Oxford University Press
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/opinion/25thu4.html?pagewanted=print Editorial: Why American College Students Hate Science (The New York Times, May 25, 2006)]
- [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/311/5769/1870 Paper: Preparing Minority Scientists and Engineers American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science 31 March 2006)]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070808072014/http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/3640/fulfilling_the_expectation_of_excellence Article: Fulfilling the Expectations of Excellence (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2005)]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080719183017/http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/57/hrabowski.html Article: It's Cool to be Smart (Fast Company, 2002)]
External links
- [http://www.umbc.edu/meyerhoff/index.html Official site]
- [http://meyerhoff.umbc.edu/30/ The Meyerhoff Scholars Program 30th Anniversary Celebration]
- [http://chancellorssciencescholars.unc.edu Chancellor's Science Scholarship]
- [http://www.millennium.psu.edu Penn State Millennium Scholars Program]
- [https://library.umbc.edu/speccoll/findingaids/coll079.php Meyerhoff Scholars Program records, 1989-2008] at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
{{UMBC}}
Category:University of Maryland, Baltimore County