| The fabled Bell Laboratories,
the research arm of first AT&T, then Lucent Technologies, and now Alcatel-Lucent,
has been a primary source of a wide range of basic science discoveries
and technological advancements over many decades. Less known, but with
significant impact on many a young person’s career outlook, has been its
outreach program to high school students—a program now called YSAP®,
Young Science Achievers Program (http://www.ysap.org/).
YSAP® addresses three
overarching goals: (1) to augment science education in school classrooms
through experiential learning projects that engage and excite students
about the sciences; (2) to introduce female and minority students to opportunities
for the pursuit of science education and careers; and (3) to build and
enhance partnerships between schools and scientific research labs for their
mutual benefit.
With the recent economic
downturn and the resulting reductions in corporate basic research and the
concomitant downsizing of related outreach programs, YSAP® was looking
for new partners to serve as research mentors, role models, and partners
in celebrating high school science.
Starting with the 2007/2008
school year YSAP® has been partnering with MIRTHE, the Engineering
Research Center for Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment,
headquartered at Princeton University. MIRTHE graduate students, post-docs,
and faculty serve as research mentors, and MIRTHE also supports several
YSAP events, bringing high school students to the university labs.
On January 9, 2010, well
over 200 students, high school teachers, and parents met at Princeton University
for a student workshop on Science and the Media, MIRTHE lab tours, a teacher
and mentor workshop and, for the parents, information sessions on college
and social networking. More than two-thirds of the students, from over
20 schools, were women, and more than half came from underrepresented groups. |
