PLACING FRESHMEN FROM DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUNDS IN LABORATORIES OF SCIENCE FACULTY This program is aimed at freshmen with a strong interest in science but who either have had limited opportunities for carrying out a science project in secondary school or who came to Harvard from economically disadvantaged circumstances or both. These students are placed in laboratories of Harvard College faculty in their freshmen year with the aim of involving them in multi-year relationship with the same laboratory and in a long-term inquiry-based project.

REFLECTIONS ON THE MOTIVATION, PROCESS, AND PRODUCT This program is aimed at students who enter Harvard College with a strong interest in science but whose school or home location and situation had not allowed them to pursue advanced courses or research opportunities. The motivating idea is that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are at greatest risk for dropping out of science. The goal is to place such students in their freshmen year in the laboratory of a member of the Harvard science faculty with the aim of involving them in multi-year relationship with the same laboratory and in a long-term inquiry-based project. The expectation is that a sustained research experience in the laboratory of a member of the faculty will help to keep these students excited about science for the remainder of their four years at Harvard and beyond. Funds from the HHMI Professors program are used in two ways to support this program. First, I provide full stipends to support students over the summer while they do research. An important obstacle for many students who wish to do summer research is that they are expected to earn money over the summer to contribute to their term-time expenses. I provide support both for room and board and enough to cover this additional earning requirement. Second, students who are on financial aid are expected to hold jobs during the academic year. I pay them for the time they spend doing research during the year in lieu of their holding a conventional job. Over the past three years a total of twenty-four students were admitted into the program of whom twenty-two are continuing to carry out sustained research projects, in almost all cases with the original laboratory in which they were placed. Most of the students are in the laboratories of my colleagues in the biological science departments but faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Harvard Medical School have also served as hosts and mentors. I meet with the students periodically and I arrange for them to meet with each other as a group. A key feature of the program is that each cohort of incoming freshmen can interact with and receive peer mentoring from more advanced students who have been in the program for one or two years. A gratifying feature of the program is the high morale, excitement, and strong friendships that has arisen among the students in the program.

ASSESSMENT Almost fifty percent of the incoming class of Harvard freshmen indicate an interest in majoring in science, but a relatively small proportion actually do so. This problem is even more acute for students who enter Harvard from educationally or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. So far, twenty-two of the twenty-four students who joined the program have continued in it, almost always with the same laboratory. All are concentrators in the sciences with the exception of one unusual case of a student who is combining a major in creative writing with a sustained program of research. I take the high retention rate as evidence that introduction to inquiry-based research in the freshmen year and the development of a long-term relationship with a faculty host can have a positive impact on retention in the sciences, even for students who are at greatest risk for switching out of the sciences.

Professor Losick with students from his HHMI program

NAMES OF STUDENTS & FACULTY PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT: Kelly Cadenas (Richard Losick's Lab) Egle Cekanaviciute (Venki Murthy's Lab) Serene Chen (John Dowling's Lab) Victoria Clark (Ray Erikson's Lab) ChiChi Esimal (Kit Parker's Lab) Lindsay Gay (Colleen Cavanaugh's Lab) Juliet Girard (Andrew Murray's Lab) Sawalla Guseh (Doug Melton's Lab) Samer Haidar (Rachel Gaudet's Lab) Musha Hove (Doug Melton's Lab) Xuan Hoang (Kathleen Sweadner's Lab) Kevin Koo (John Dowling's Lab) Danny Mou (Tom Maniatis's Lab) Lachezar Nikolov (Richard Losick's Lab) Thomas Noriega (Axel Nohturfft's Lab) Elinathan Ohiomoba (Max Neibert's Lab) Shola Olorunnipa (Phyllis Nanki's Lab) Rejoice Opara (David Jeruzalmi's Lab) Manuel Sanchez (Matt Michael's Lab) Bushra Taha (Catherine Dulac's Lab) Nadiah Wan (Philip Dormitzer's Lab) Shirleen Soh (Andy McMahon's Lab)

RESEARCH DESCRIPTIONS Click here for descriptions of research projects being conducted by students in Professor Losick's program.