Newswise — In the past fifteen years the University of Texas System has nearly doubled minority participation in undergraduate science programs. Many students have gone on to graduate programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). International experience is important for student development, so the UT System reached out to the Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology (FAST). Starting in 2008, FAST will facilitate minority student participation at international conferences and meetings.
The $180,000 in seed funding for the UT System initiative comes from the National Science Foundation's Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program. The students will attend meetings organized by FAST and its international partners. FAST meetings in 2007 included a conference in Panama on the UN Millennium Development Goals and a workshop/ symposium in Morocco on IT and digital archives. Major programs in 2008 will be in Qatar, Singapore and Boston, Massachusetts. Various Texas institutions will be represented at these meetings. FAST is a global organization established by alumni of the prestigious Fulbright Exchange Program. In the past sixty years, over 100,000 scientists have participated in the Fulbright program, and over 2,000 new grants are awarded in the sciences each year. Many Fulbright alumni have risen to positions of leadership in the scientific community " winning Nobel Prizes, serving in government and holding key positions at academic institutions and foundations.
Since 1993, the UT Alliance has sought to increase the number of underrepresented minority students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. The Alliance has also encouraged these individuals to pursue a graduate education in the state of Texas through valuable research opportunities. The nine academic institutions within the UT System have contributed over $39 million dollars toward this important initiative.
The UT System program has had excellent results. Over the life of the program, over 90% of the undergraduate student participants in the UT System Alliance completed their undergraduate degrees, and 31% of the undergraduate participants who graduated have enrolled in graduate programs in STEM fields. Based on their success, educational institutions in Chile and elsewhere have looked to Texas as a model.
The following University of Texas campuses will be involved in the FAST program: UT-Arlington, UT-Austin, UT-Brownsville, UT-Dallas, UT-El Paso, UT-Pan American, UT-Permian Basin, UT-San Antonio, and UT-Tyler.
FAST has individual and institutional members in more than 40 countries. It is an independent, US-based non-profit organization. It is not affiliated with the Fulbright Program, the US State Department, national alumni groups, or the agencies and commissions involved in administering Fulbright exchanges.
Active since 2003, FAST is funded by donations, memberships, programs and grants. Previous activities have been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the US National Science Foundation; the German-US Fulbright Commission, the Qatar Foundation, El Salvador's Ministry of Economy, Morocco's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research; Panama's National Secrtariat for Science, Technology & Innovation; Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology & Research. Corporate sponsors include Dupont-Mexico, Google, Monsanto, Booz Allen Hamilton, Salesforce.com and Thomson Scientific.
RSS