By Julieta González

Associate Dean María Teresa Vélez describes the Graduate College Diversity Programs as “an effort to build a pipeline of under-represented people, whether they be low income, first-generation college graduates or under-represented minorities, to go on to graduate school.”

There are approximately 95 students to whom the Graduate College provides research and other opportunities to help them gain the skills and motivation to go to graduate school.

One of the components of these programs is the Summer Research Institute (SRI). This program has been in existence for eight years and more than 85 percent of its participants have continued on to graduate school, medical, law and other post-baccalaureate programs. The students have enrolled at the UA as well as at other prestigious universities.

Half of Vélez’s time is spent administering these programs and half supervising the recruitment, admissions and special projects of the graduate college. The SRI is an intensive 10-week summer course of instruction with research as a focus. The students are paired with a faculty mentor who will guide the student as he or she conducts research in an area of great interest to the student. The students also learn about research ethics, critical thinking and how to present their research through a graduate-level research paper, a poster and orally at the end of the Summer Research Colloquium. These experiences will give the student an understanding of the approaches, issues and research methodologies in his or her chosen field. Students also earn the satisfaction and self-confidence that comes from completing an academic project of this nature. Vélez adds that the student is awarded six units of credit and three to four thousand dollars for their work over the course of the 10-week program.

A sampling of the undergraduate students’ summer research projects and members are Samuel Alegría's “Seaport Significance in World Trades: A Comparison of Mexico’s Seaport with Select Others from the United States, Europe and Asia,” whose mentor was professor of history, Oscar Martínez; Bongi Biahop’s “Blood From A Bone: Investigating the Survival of Blood Proteins in Skeletal Tissue for the Forensic Determination of Date of Death,” mentor Gregory Hodgins, research scientist in the physics department; and Alex Mendibles’ “Globalization of the Mining Industry and the Impacts On Communities and Families,” mentor Sallie Marston, professor in the department of geography and regional development.

According to Vélez, the SRI helps students build a résumé for graduate school and decide whether they are ready for graduate-level studies. “The students are between their junior and senior year in college, and some may have finished their bachelor’s degree but have not yet applied to graduate school. So, we also teach them how to apply,” says Vélez.

A critical portion of the course requirements includes sessions on advanced research writing. “Unfortunately, undergraduates don’t write too many research papers anymore,” says Vélez. “But, we teach these students how to write very comprehensive papers. And, even for those who write well, at whatever level they write, we take them to an even higher level.” The writing portion of the SRI includes the development and honing of library skills, grammar and presentation techniques along with MLA/APA style. The latter refers to the publication styles of the Modern Language Association and of the American Psychological Association. Critique and feedback from faculty mentors and classroom peers help round out the learning experience.

Students who have completed the SRI successfully have enrolled in graduate school not only at the UA, but also at other research universities such as the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the Mayo Clinic Medical School and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Other participants who earned their bachelor’s degrees at other universities are now pursuing graduate studies at the UA.

The SRI applicants are required to have at least a 3.0 grade point average and may come from any discipline. Students from the other Graduate College summer programs; the McNair Achievement Program; the Minority Health Disparities Summer Research Opportunity Program; and the Minority Access to Research Career help bring the 90 or so students in the program to form a community of young scholars. While there are similar programs around the country, including one at Harvard for Native Americans, Vélez states the UA’s is the largest. About half of the students who participate in the program come from other universities around the country.

Vélez, who has been at the UA for more than 20 years in various academic and administration positions, emphasizes that the focus is to help build the next generation of scholars, researchers and educators who more closely mirror the gender and ethnic composition of American society. “We’ve had women in math and engineering and, we will consider men in fields in which they are under-represented as well.” She says that “our major goal is to point people toward graduate school, cultivate future faculty to teach and conduct research and help others become corporate and government leaders, physicians or lawyers. It doesn’t matter to us. What we want from them is their commitment to studying beyond their Bachelor’s degree.”

This is the type of program, according to Vélez, that helps the great majority of students who are not primed to go to college to continue on for a higher degree with the help and guidance of upper middle class and professional parents. “We want our students to be as competitive as any one else when they enter graduate school,” says Vélez. “Our students bring fresh perspectives to our institutions and tend to pursue novel areas of discovery. And, when they complete graduate school, they become greater contributors not only to their fields and professions but also to their own communities.”

A source of pride and satisfaction for Vélez is that in the eight years since the Summer Research Institute and recruitment programs have been started at the Graduate College, graduate school enrollment for minorities has almost doubled. “I firmly believe that education is a way out of poverty and a way into success and a good, productive and meaningful life,” says Vélez.