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Session 1648

Minority Student as a Scholar Program: A Research Grant Program for Minority Students at Penn State Altoona

Sohail Anwar Penn State Altoona

Abstract

This paper describes an innovative research grant program for undergraduate minority students at Penn State Altoona. The program allows teams of faculty members and qualified minority students to develop proposals for research projects in various academic disciplines including engineering. These proposals are reviewed by a committee of faculty members and based on their recommendations, research grants are awarded by the program coordinator to selected student-faculty teams. The teams work on their research projects during the time frame of 6 – 8 months. At the end of the research project, each faculty-minority student team submits a written report to the program coordinator. Once the selected students complete the research projects, their academic progress is tracked until they graduate from their respective degree programs.

This paper provides a description of the above mentioned research grant program for minority students. Several examples of engineering research projects recently completed by faculty- minority student teams are listed. Obstacles encountered in conducting this program are mentioned. Finally, the impact of the above mentioned undergraduate research program on the academic progress of the participating minority students is described.

I. Introduction

As described by Chickamenahalli & Barker1, Madler 2, and Kitto3, initiatives have been taken by many universities and colleges in the past few years to improve participation of undergraduate students in research. Also, many educational institutions have increased their efforts to involve undergraduate minority students in research projects. The undergraduate research opportunities help both the faculty and the students. Students involved in research get valuable research experience and the opportunity to publish papers. Faculty members participating in undergraduate research programs get valuable research work done. The undergraduate research experiences promote interaction among students and faculty members. Professor-student interaction increases the persistence of students as described by Tinto, Love, and Russo4, and Tinto, Love, and Russo5.

This paper describes an innovative research grant program for undergraduate minority students at Penn State Altoona. The program allows teams of faculty members and qualified minority students to develop proposals for research projects in various academic disciplines including engineering. These proposals are reviewed by a committee of faculty members and based on their recommendations, research grants are awarded by the program coordinator to selected teams. The minority student(s) and the faculty member work closely on the research project during the time frame of 6-8 months. At the end of the research project, each faculty-minority

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Anwar, S. (2000, June), Minority Student As A Scholar Program: A Research Grant Program For Minority Students At Penn State Altoona Paper presented at 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. 10.18260/1-2--8569