Students participate in minority grant program

by Andy Garvin, news editor

Twelve students at South Plains College are the first to participate in the Plains Bridges to the Baccalaureate program.

The program, a partnership between SPC and Texas Tech University is the fruit from a $1.08 million, five-year grant that will be used to encourage and support minority undergraduate students interested in the biomedical sciences. It began with the fall semester.

Hispanics, American Indians and African-Americans made up 27 percent of the population of the United States in 2000, but the 2005 Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Report found that they comprised only 20 percent of all graduate degrees.

Jaclyn Cañas, program director for the Plains Bridges to Baccalaureate Program at Texas Tech, said it is critical for higher education institutions to develop programs to help minority students overcome the challenges they face in pursuing university degrees, especially in the sciences, an area in which, statistics show, they are underrepresented.

The Plains Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program targets minority students majoring in science at SPC, providing activities and services to help those SPC students transfer to a four-year university, continue their education in the biological/biomedical sciences and provide opportunities to participate in real research.

“This program is not meant to add more to your plate,” said Dr. Jay Driver, professor of mathematics at SPC. “It is meant to enrich what you already have.” 

They hope to have 48 students pass through the program during the next five years, and the students who are awarded will participate in a two-year program geared toward  helping them succeed in college and science.

“We want to let the students know what other options are right at their fingertips,” added Dr. Driver.

The students are guaranteed a summer job doing under-graduate research in a laboratory at Texas Tech or the TTU Health Sciences Center during the summer following their first year at SPC. They can continue the job, part-time, during the school year.

“We hope to put together career workshops, open up their minds and say, ‘Here are some other options’,” said Driver.

The program does not provide room and board during the school year or summer, and it does not pay tuition and fees. Any student can drop out of the program at any time.

Dr. Jay Driver and Dr. Phillip Anderson, chairperson of the Math Department at SPC, and other Texas Tech faculty members, aided in securing the funding for this program.