This story is part of a regular feature on CALS Notes devoted to profiling the people and programs in the college committed to promoting greater diversity and inclusion in the CALS community.
Thanks to a 2013 CALS Diversity Recruitment Initiatives grant, the successful Summer Research Scholars Program at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station aims to enroll its most diverse group of students ever this summer.
Begun in 2009, the program offers the unique opportunity to conduct hands-on research in entomology, food science, horticulture, and plant pathology and plant-microbe biology (PPPMB) at Cornell to approximately 25 elite undergraduates from colleges and universities across the country. Students work closely with CALS faculty, graduate students, postdocs and staff on laboratory or field-based research projects, many of which aim to deliver practical solutions to real-world problems faced by local farmers and food producers. Students also have the opportunity to learn how to plan and conduct their own experiments, evaluate data, communicate results, network and learn about potential job opportunities in ag and food research.
This unique program has had an impressive track record of success. Fully 65% of its participants have gone on to graduate study in their fields, with several enrolling at Cornell. And with new funding from the CALS Diversity Recruitment Initiatives grant, program leader Christine Smart, associate professor of plant pathology & plant microbe biology, hopes to diversify not only the program’s 2014 cohort, but also the pool of participants who eventually apply for graduate study at Cornell in the fields of horticulture, entomology and PPPMB.
“The leadership team of the Summer Research Scholars program has been trying to identify ways to increase the diversity of students in the program,” said Smart. “We feel it’s critical for the program, and for our disciplines, to fully reflect the diversity of American society. The CALS initiative grant provided a stimulus for us to work towards this goal.”
With grant funds, program leaders were able for the first time to actively recruit at universities like Delaware State, Florida A&M and Tuskegee University, which have large populations of first-generation college students and those from ethnic groups historically underrepresented in higher education. The team worked with faculty and diversity committees at these schools to promote the program and identify likely candidates, ultimately meeting with 40 high-achieving students. In conjunction with this targeted recruitment effort, the program also plans to award three diversity fellowships for the very first time.
Although the window for applications to the 2014 cohort has only just closed, signs suggest that these efforts have yielded significant results.
“We are very pleased with the response to our efforts this year,” Smart said. “Although I currently only have applicant data from PPPMB, where we are thrilled that one third of our 60 applicants have applied for a diversity fellowship!”
CALS Notes will continue to report on the progress of this initiative and others throughout the year.
