Several 91探花biology students are showing their appreciation of receiving tutorial services by becoming tutors themselves.

Through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Tutorial Center, these “veteran” biology students, many of whom are Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) students, tutor and mentor other students from underrepresented groups who need help with introductory biology classes.

The people at the center hope that by helping economically disadvantaged and EOP students master these extremely competitive, overwhelming classes, these students can benefit from the rest of the curriculum and eventually attend medical or graduate school.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute Tutorial Center, located at 302 Hitchcock Hall, is part of a four-year, $1.8 million grant awarded to the 91探花in 1994 for the second time. According to the center’s 1996 annual report, between 35 and 44 students were served per quarter in 1995, of which 85 percent to 90 percent were underrepresented minorities. Furthermore, the majority of the tutors were from underrepresented groups, and five out of the nine tutors were former “tutees.”

“The idea for the center came out of need,” said Tekie Mehary, biology lecturer and instructor. He expressed how important it is to help pre-professional biology students of color, who are taking the 100 level classes, finish the program.

During the process of re-applying for the grant, Mehary said that he and others identified which classes students struggled with and what problems existed. “We thought students of color worked too many hours, and they didn’t take advantage of tutor hours. So for the second grant, we changed the format and added student tutors. Now there are two tutors for Biology 201, two tutors for Biology 202 and one tutor for Zoology 118.”

By providing a stipend to tutor students, Mehary feels this will result in a win-win situation for both tutors and their recipients. Mehary said tutors get a lot out of tutoring, because their confidence in their knowledge and ability increases as they teach. “When tutors teach, they learn twice,” Mehary said.

Currently, there are three 91探花graduate students serving as mentors and five undergraduate students as tutors, all of who Mehary described as compassionate, dedicated and good students.

Greg Perez, a tutor and senior in environmental health, said he first became involved with the program after he started taking science classes and used the tutorial service. “I had a weak science background. A lot of minority students are not prepared for natural science; I was always discouraged from going into science,” he said.

As a returning student at age 34, Perez is the first one in his family to go to college. “My parents were migrant farm workers. We didn’t talk about DNA analysis around the dinner table. We talked about how we hoped the rain doesn’t ruin our crops.”

Since last Autumn Quarter Perez has been tutoring students. He said he feels responsible for “giving back to EOP students” not only because he himself is an EOP student, but he remembers benefiting from the tutorial services.

Currently, Perez is applying to medical school. Looking back at his life, he admits that medical school did not enter his mind while growing up. Perez described his interest in biology as an evolution made possible by Charlie Garcia, director of the minority affairs program at the School of Medicine, the 91探花Office of Minority Affairs and Mehary. ###

Note: Grace Shim is a Diversity News Intern in the Office of News and Information, under a program supported by the Ford Foundation. <!—at end of each paragraph insert

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The Samuel E. Kelly Scholars Center is following the reputation of the man it is named after.

Named in honor of the UW’s first vice president for minority affairs who is considered by many to be a legend and a powerful leader in Seattle’s African American community, the center has paid the SAT registration fees for 15 students and driven students to test centers on two occasions. Moreover, the center recently established free SAT classes at the East Madison YMCA at their request.

The Samuel E. Kelly Scholars Center provides solid academic support to high school students from underrepresented groups through tutoring and free SAT preparation. Its goal is to encourage and prepare minority students to enter the science and math fields, particularly at the 91探花.

The center opened its doors in October 1995 with the help of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant and through the guidance of visionaries Millie Russell, vice president for minority affairs and lecturer in biology, and John Palka, director of the 91探花biology department. Russell says that the center is the first and only one of its kind in the nation.

Russell said she wanted to help high school students go to college, and felt that a structured environment conducive to learning could help them get good grades and SAT scores. “We call it the Scholar’s Center, because we want the students to think they are scholars here; we want them to aspire to be scholars.”

Within the heart of Seattle’s Central District in the Seattle Vocational Technical Institute building, the center has served more than 100 different students in the Renton-south Seattle area. From Mondays through Thursdays, tutors, the majority of whom are 91探花minority students, assist high school students with homework from 4 to 6 p.m. And for the remaining two hours, 6 to 8 p.m., tutors help teach SAT skills.

To enroll in the center, the high school students must sign a contract promising to attend at least two times a week for two hours, and their parents co-sign. “They really stick to this (contract) for a couple months to a year,” Palka said.

With hard work and perseverance, the students’ results have shone through. Palka said that the center’s participants achieved a combined SAT score that is 150 points higher than the national average score. “Nationwide African American students got the mean score of 744, whereas the mean for African American students at the center was 933. Thirteen out of fifteen students who took the SAT went above the national mean.” Palka admits that this is not a controlled study, but feels that the numbers are encouraging nonetheless.

James Dupree, executive director of secondary education in the Renton School District, helped design the SAT tutoring and training for the center. He attributes the participants’ success to the center’s training style. “We are more time intensive. The kids are receiving more SAT preparation and intensive instruction where minority kids do the poorest–vocabulary.” In addition to building vocabulary daily, Dupree said that he and the tutors focus on teaching different types of problem solving techniques, which is something he feels the traditional programs don’t spend time on.

During the SAT instruction, tutors and students alike take a vocabulary or math test for 30 minutes. “We go over the answers every day,” said Philip Kinlow, a junior architecture pre-major, who volunteers as a tutor two to three times a week.

Kinlow, who became a tutor when the center opened, said he got involved with teaching due to Dupree. “He told me about the program and asked me to join. It sounded like something I wanted to get involved with.”

Because he himself got the average SAT score, Kinlow initially felt unsure about tutoring students on the SAT. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out great because Dupree showed us techniques on how to take the tests and teach.”

Over the past year, Kinlow has noticed improvement on both sides–participants and himself. As the students’ test scores and comprehension of math concepts has increased, so has his confidence. “I learned how to speak in front of a group. I also have gotten better at explaining (concepts) to students,” he said.

Likewise during one year’s time, organizations such as the East Madison YMCA, the Garfield High School Parents’ Group and Rotary Boys and Girls Club have requested the center to tutor and teach SAT preparation classes to their high school students. In addition, the number of students enrolled in the center has doubled.

“The word has gotten out,” says Palka, as he explains the increased demand. “We are taking a hold in the community.” ###

Note: Grace Shim is a Diversity News Intern in the Office of News and Information, under a program supported by the Ford Foundation. <!—at end of each paragraph insert

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A pilot project headed by the 91探花 is attempting to increase the population of Native American students in higher education by exposing them to a possible career alternative, the legal profession.

“Pathways to Law School” is a two part program that has brought 40 high school students to campus. The first session held during the first week in October allowed the students the opportunity to meet 91探花Native American law students as well as Native American attorneys. Additionally, the participants received information about admission requirements for post-secondary institutions, learned about legal issues faced by many tribes and participated in a mock trial.

The second session of the Pathways program is scheduled for October 31-November 1. The 40 participants will experience the daily routine of a law school student by participating in classes. They also will stay in dormitories and listen to motivational speakers. The event will culminate in a shared celebration of the 91探花Native American Student Day, which is scheduled for Nov. 1.

Sandra Madrid, the assistant dean of the 91探花School of Law, who wrote the proposal, noted that the 91探花was one of three schools picked as a site for the pilot project due to a large concentration of Native American students in Washington as well as a large number of minority students enrolled in the law school.

“Thirty-five percent students of color…and 22 Native American students are enrolled at the 91探花law school. Nationally it is a good number,” Madrid said. Madrid elaborated that “the 91探花is one of the top three (colleges) in its commitment to Native American students” and that the 91探花Native American student body represents various “tribes across the country.”

This past spring and summer, the 91探花School of Law and the Office of Minority of Affairs worked extensively to secure money for the program by submitting a proposal to the Law School Admission Council, a national non-profit organization that oversees law school committees, and also to its subcommittee, the Minority Affairs Commission, which handles the recruitment for under-represented students of color.

Because of the Office of Minority Affairs’ experience in recruiting Native American high-school students, the 91探花School of Law asked OMA’s Educational Talent Search to co-sponsor the project.

Julian Argel, director of ETS, said that for the past two years ETS targeted Native American students who are potential generation college students from low-income areas. James Gutierrez, an ETS counselor, said he noticed that the high-school students “didn’t think it was possible for someone from their background to (go to college)” until they saw and listened to the counselors recount their firsthand experiences about college.

ETS helped to selected the 40 participants from areas, such as Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom and Yakima Counties–areas that are considered low-income areas with large Native American student population.

According to the 1992 American Council on Education report, American Indians were the most educationally underserved population, with highest percentage of students performing below basic math and reading skills levels and a 35.5 percent dropout rate from high school. Moreover, the American Indian college graduation rate is four percent compared to a 20 percent college graduation rate for the U.S. population as a whole.

One of the biggest goals of the Pathways project, according to Madrid, “is to plant the seeds for Indian students to look to continue their education especially in the legal field.” To implement that goal, many of the UW’s Native American law students will serve as mentors, tutors and facilitators of special activities to the participants.

Darwin Long Fox, 91探花law student involved in the Pathways program and Native American Law Student Association president, said that he personally got into law because of many reasons, one of which is the great need for Native American lawyers. “Statistics show that there are only 1,200 Native American attorneys. Given the need and issues native people face, 1,200 is not a lot,” he said.

Long Fox cited another startling statistic which underlines the need for the Pathways program and others like it. “Depending on the location of the reservation, out of the 90 percent of Native Americans who go on to post-secondary education, 60-80 percent drop out.”

“Our leaders fought very hard in the past…and there is an inner sense of obligation to fight and protect our rights and culture to pass onto the future generation,” Long Fox said.

For additional information, contact Julian Argel of the Educational Talent Search, (206) 616-1948 or Sandra Madrid of the 91探花Law School, (206) 543-0199.

Note: Grace Shim is a Diversity News Intern in the Office of News and Information, under a program supported by the Ford Foundation.

A new, provocative documentary that deals with race relations on contemporary college campuses will be shown at the 91探花 on Thursday, Oct. 10.

The free screening of “Skin Deep” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall. It is sponsored by the 91探花Curriculum Transformation Project, the 91探花Office of Minority Affairs and the Levi Strauss Foundation.

Frances Reid, an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, as well as a student starring in the film, will both be in attendance after the screening and the following day to answer questions with 91探花faculty members on site. The second day discussion scheduled at the Husky Union Building (HUB) is called, “Talking About Race.”

The 53 minute film glimpses the interactions of 23 racially diverse college students from Texas A&M, Cal Berkeley and University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Throughout the film, these students express their viewpoints on and experiences with race and race relations.

Reid said she choose the 91探花as the site for the screening because she felt the 91探花had done a lot of work with diversity. Many 91探花professors have made and continue to make efforts to integrate issues of diversity, especially racial diversity, in their curriculum.

Kim Barrett, research assistant professor in psychology, tries to help students “gain an understanding of racism” in her classes.For example, in her Psychology 250 class, Racism and Minority Groups, she explains how discrimination can affect people of color’s mental health and interactions. Barrett finds she always has a “group of students who have never been exposed to the issue of racism” until they attended her class. Moreover, she finds a group of students who “fight with others proclaiming that they are not racists.”

Similarly, Gerald Baldasty, an associate professor in the School of Communications, brings images from film, media and newspapers which portray various people to his class. He said he is excited to teach a course that deals with “how the media portray our lives.” In general, he’s noticed that his students are interested in the subject of race since he feels that they do not get much exposure to race and diversity issues on campus.

“They (students) are concerned with the stereotypes (which) permeate the media such as those of women, people of color as well as gays and lesbians. There are fairly negative images of people…on prime time, or they are invisible. Where can you find Native Americans, Asians and Latinos (on TV)?” asked Baldasty.

As for the 91探花students themselves, they have differing perceptions of race and race relations on campus. The only common thread among the students’ views was the belief that to improve racial harmony on campus, people must learn how to interact with each other either through taking classes or by force.

As a fifth year senior in history and news editor of the 91探花paper, The Daily, Jason Ocampo said in an almost tongue-in-cheek manner that the only way to improve race relations at the 91探花was to “lock everyone up on campus.” Ocampo said that students must deal with race and differences head-on by “going out and doing things different with different people” in an otherwise large and seemingly impersonal campus. Admittedly, he finds his own solution difficult to initialize at the 91探花because “the 91探花is like a community college (in that) 80 percent of its students go to class and go home.”

Emily Hutchinson, a junior double majoring in chemistry and sociology, expected a greater racial mix on campus before she arrived at the UW. “I feel the campus is predominately white,” she said

“Race is an emotionally charged word…emotions fly hard and fast. It’s too dangerous of a subject,” warns Hutchinson. She feels that students need to overcome their fears of guilt, and talk honestly to each other because “if no one says anything, nothing will get resolved.”

Conversely, Kate Adams, a senior in sociology, was surprised at how many students of color attend the UW. Adams noted that in one of sociology classes, there was a “stunning array of ethnicity” to which she perceived the class composition to be “30 percent white and 70 percent other races. I feel more like a minority as a Caucasian,” she said.

Like others students, Adams noticed a lot of people from the same or similar ethnicity hang out together in cliques. “I feel uncomfortable in that place in the HUB where the black community sits because they isolate themselves there,” she said. Furthermore, Adams said she wanted to learn how to approach people of different backgrounds since she did not learn how at the UW.

Just 60 miles south of Seattle, at Olympia’s Evergreen State College, student Lambert Lee attended the screening of “Skin Deep” and its follow-up discussion with the filmmaker, faculty and students. From that event forward, Evergreen has established ongoing brown bag lunch dialogues about race on campus.

Individuals who have participated in our race talks have gained a lot of insight into the issues revolving around such a delicate topic. We have gotten a lot of mileage out of the video and will continue to use it as a vehicle to talk about race and diversity on our campus,” Lee said.

“The key message of the film,” said Luis Ramirez, director of the 91探花Ethnic Cultural Center, “is that unless we see ourselves in the other, then we deny the other ourselves.” In other words, we as people deny our own humanity if we cannot find some likeness in other people, he said.

The screening of “Skin Deep” is free, and a videotape of the movie is also available for loan at the 91探花Ethnic Cultural Center.

Note: Grace Shim is a Diversity News Intern in the Office of News and Information, under a program supported by the Ford Foundation.