Tashia Hicks of American University (right) confers with Joan Ferrante, professor of English and comparative literature, at the GSAS welcome reception.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences' (GSAS) Summer Research Program (SRP) for students from historically underrepresented groups recently began its 13th year of offering research internships to undergraduate students in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. This year's group of 14 hails from ten colleges and universities from around the country, including Columbia and Barnard Colleges.

The summer intern program, supported since 1993 by the Leadership Alliance Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) and, most recently, by the Trinitas Foundation. is designed to provide undergraduates with a graduate-level research experience under the direction of faculty members who act as mentors. The program runs for eight weeks and culminates in two mini symposia held at Columbia and at the Alliance's annual national symposium, which will be held in July in Stone Mountain, Georgia, this year. The symposia offer students the opportunity to present their research results to audiences of knowledgeable peers, faculty mentors, program administrators and senior investigators.

"Back in 1987, we thought to change the reception of historically underrepresented students in universities in general and to make Columbia University more open to those students who had an idea about research extensive study," said Gillian Lindt, interim Dean of GSAS who initiated the Summer Research Program 14 years ago. "Today, I am struck by the way this program has been institutionalized and by the faculty who have consistently volunteered to work as mentors.

"To students who are looking forward to participating in an exciting and rewarding research experience, this summer's work will be as exciting and rewarding as you want it to be according to the amount of your own energy that you put into it. Don't shy away from grand topics or delimit your questions. These internships offer opportunities to begin to develop the ability to recognize the good questions – a key characteristic of the people who are going to be on the forefront of research and teaching in the future," Lindt added.

Three research interns (from left): Angela Erazo of CUNY at Brooklyn College, Arnaldo Diaz of the University of Puerto Rico and Raquel Castellanos of St. Francis College.

Mignon Moore, professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, who will mentor a student in sociology this summer, offered reasons for the necessity of programs like the SRP at the opening reception. "It is important for students (both minority and majority) to see people of color teaching, leading and helping to address some of the imbalances that they saw growing up. It is important for colleagues to come together and bring to the classroom and research different experiences, different approaches, different questions and knowledge. It is important to our communities. In our poorer communities it is important to them to see people like them succeeding, and it is important that these graduates participate in the more affluent communities so that people can see that when you've received a doctorate, you've really done something because your growth as a person and in your field benefits the entire community."

The year's interns have already begun investigations of their topics with their mentors and the success of each individual's experience is much anticipated. The goal of this program is to increase the presence of individual from traditionally underrepresented groups among the ranks of scholars, researchers and faculties of U.S. colleges and universities," said Sharon Gamble, director of the GSAS Office of Minority Affairs. "We want these interns to get a glimpse of a future in research and to realize that everyone does not have to become a doctor or a lawyer to succeed."