ACS Scholars Celebrate Anniversary

In 1989, Venezuela erupted in economic turmoil and political unrest. That year, 15-year-old Daniel J. Mindiola and his mother came to the U.S. He didn't do particularly well in high school chemistry. But at Michigan State University, his freshman chemistry professor made it look so easy that he asked to do research with her after the first lecture. He got his chance a few months later. After earning a B.S. in chemistry and then completing a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mindiola did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago. Now he runs a research group of 11 students at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Julia James was raised by members of her extended family in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was originally interested in English as an undergraduate at Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Geneva, N.Y. It was as a biochem major, however, that in 2004 she was one of 32 Americans chosen as a Rhodes Scholar. Currently, she is at Oxford University pursuing a doctorate in HIV immunology.

Kimm Groshong did undergraduate research in organic chemistry. By her junior year at Pomona College, Claremont, Calif., though, she had realized that she liked writing up her lab reports more than actually doing experiments. Immediately following her bachelor's degree in science, technology, and society, she enrolled in the science journalism program at Boston University. She completed it last year. Groshong is now the sole science reporter at the Pasadena Star-News in California.

Curtis Deer experimented with his chemistry set as a child in Kalamazoo, Mich. In high school, he spent two summers at Western Michigan University participating in Project SEED, the American Chemical Society's program to promote careers in the chemical sciences for disadvantaged high school students. As a senior chemistry major at the university, he is currently applying to graduate school. Chemistry or nanotechnology? Dual doctoral programs would allow him to study both.

All of these successful people are ACS Scholars. And all say they wouldn't be where they are today without the program.

The scholarship and mentoring program is designed to encourage African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American students to pursue undergraduate degrees in the chemical sciences, which include chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, and related fields such as environmental science, materials science, or toxicology. Over the past 11 academic years, 1,600 students have been selected for scholarships and branched out in almost as many directions.

In 1991, then-ACS president S. Allen Heininger was worried about the face of ACS. So he formed a task force to examine the representation of minority status in the membership. According to its findings, not all minorities were underrepresented in the chemical sciences, but African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American groups needed more attention.

Two years later, Carlos G. Gutierrez, chair of the fledgling Committee on Minority Affairs, pondered how ACS should address those three underrepresented groups, and the ACS Scholars Program emerged. Originally named the ACS Minority Scholars, it was designed to help these students financially and provide mentoring while they pursued four-year undergraduate degrees in chemical sciences. It was later expanded to include two-year degrees. Although the program was initially funded by ACS only through the year 2000, its success has propelled it through 2010.

Relatively few students in these three minority groups pursue chemistry-related careers, according to this year's ACS ChemCensus. Hispanics/Latinos, who make up 14% of the U.S. population, represent less than 3% of the chemistry workforce. Although 12% of the population, African Americans make up less than 2% of the chemical workforce. Native Americans represent less than 1% of the population and the chemical workforce.

The ultimate goal of the ACS Scholars Program is to change the face of chemistry and the face of ACS to look more like the real population of the U.S., says Robert J. Hughes, who has managed the program since 1995. The students really make the whole program worthwhile, he adds.

Of the Scholars to date, a little more than half are African American. Nearly 40% are Hispanic, and 6% are Native American. Roughly two-thirds of the Scholars are women. Student retention rate is roughly 80%, and those demographics follow through graduation.

About half will enter a graduate program, and about half will go into the workforce. Hughes says, Of those who have entered graduate programs, we have 96 currently who report going into Ph.D. programs, and we have confirmed to date 22 who have gotten their Ph.D.s.

Groshong wasn't the only Scholar to take chemistry outside the traditional bounds of industry and academia. Hailing from New York City, Daniel Golab combined his interests in economics and chemistry. After graduating from Harvard with a B.A. in chemistry last year, he returned to his hometown to work in the chemicals group of Credit Suisse First Boston's investment banking division.

Francisco Lopez is working on a master's degree in imaging science at Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York, while he does research at Xerox as a chemical and materials engineer. I got my foot in the door as a Scholar, he says. Lopez was exposed to science outside the classroom when he did a summer internship at Xerox after his freshman year at MIT. Before he graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering in 2002, Xerox sent him a letter. The company was happy with his work as an intern and wanted to know if he was interested in a full-time position after graduation. The Scholars Program pretty much helped at every step of my career so far.

Mindiola was the first Scholar to complete a doctorate in 2000, but more have followed. Francine Garrett just finished a combination program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y. With M.S., Ph.D., and M.D. degrees, she has started her internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital, affiliated with Cornell University.

She and her mother lived in several states in the U.S. before imigrating to Israel for 15 years. Garrett returned to the U.S. to attend college on a gymnastics scholarship. When she sustained a career-ending injury in her first year, she managed the team to keep her scholarship.

At the end of her freshman year at the University of California, Fullerton, Garrett was asked to do summer research in organic chemistry, which she says turned her on to a laboratory career. An adviser told the biochemistry major about ACS's program during her junior year. In 1995, she became one of the first ACS Scholars. Garrett says being a Scholar allowed her to devote more time to academics that year. The scholarship allowed me to continue my research and pushed me in that direction. The Scholars Program has given Garrett, as it has many others, the opportunity for travel and presentation at conferences. That type of interaction is invaluable to people in high school and college, she adds.

Thomas H. Epps III is the son of two professors. His father is the retired chair of the chemistry and physics department at Virginia State University. I enjoyed chemistry growing up and sometimes followed my dad into work, Epps says. His father saw a flyer about the ACS Scholars Program and encouraged Epps to apply while he was a freshman at MIT in 1995. Now as a postdoc at the National Institute of Standards & Technology and scheduled to start in June as an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, he says the program is paying dividends for me even today.

Epps sees that the program is constantly evolving and that Hughes is really trying to keep the former Scholars involved and get their feedback and input. Because Epps is located near ACS headquarters, he has been able to attend advisory meetings for the Scholars Program. That still gives me the opportunity to network and meet other people, he adds.

Jasquelin Pea graduated from Yale University in 2001 with a B.S. in chemical engineering. Then she was hired as a research associate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Until 2003, she worked in the Earth Sciences Division, looking at the transport of uranium in the subsurface. Her project included collaborating with a professor at the nearby University of California, Berkeley. That collaboration is one of the reasons she transferred to that university. Now she's in her third year as a doctoral student in the environmental engineering program.

Pea, who describes herself as a first-generation American, grew up in a community about 20 miles from Manhattan and spent a few years in the Dominican Republic. Her first year as a Scholar was in 1997 as a freshman. There wasn't a whole lot of financial support that I could expect from my family, she says. Knowing about the society's support and having the opportunity to attend an ACS conference were great, she says gratefully. As for most other Scholars, the scholarship meant that Pea could work in the lab as an undergraduate rather than spending time on an unrelated job to cover her schooling expenses.

Applicants to the Scholars Program must demonstrate merit and financial need. Decisions are made by a committee composed of people from the minority groups that the scholarship is designed to attract. The committee considers academic record, evidence of leadership, participation in extracurricular and community activities, and level of interest in the chemical sciences as a career. Renewable scholarships are awarded for up to $2,500 for freshmen and up to $3,000 for sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Historically, the program has received funding from various sources. In 1994, the ACS Board appropriated $5 million to be used at the rate of $1 million per year. In 1998, an additional $1.5 million was appropriated. In 2002, the program was extended until 2008. In 2005, it was extended again until 2010. So far, $8.2 million has been awarded.

In 1997, PPG Industries and Tripos Corp. became the first corporate donors. That same year, PPG Industries was the first to establish renewable funding, mentors, and the opportunity for paid internships for 10 incoming freshman each year. As of this year, more than 28 corporations and foundations, five ACS local sections, 30 private individuals, and more than 60 former Scholars have contributed money to the program. Combined with matching funds from ACS, these contributions total more than $5 million. ACS incurs all administrative costs of the program.

Recalling that ACS Board meeting in 1994 where the Scholars Program was first approved, ACS Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Madeleine Jacobs says: I think there was enormous enthusiasm from the board, but I don't think anyone could have foreseen how successful this program would be. We have done something significant to change the face of chemistry.

A scientifically prepared workforce is critical for the future, and the demographics of this nation are such that we must tap into all our talent, and that certainly means our underrepresented minorities, Jacobs adds.

Not only are they academically gifted, but most of them have strong financial need, she notes. Some of the Scholars come from the poorest of the poor families, from extremely impoverished neighborhoods and disadvantaged backgrounds. To hear how this program has transformed their lives is quite inspirational.

Jacobs predicts that the program will continue for some time to come, especially with continued ongoing corporate and individual support and student success.

Although the scholarship is an important part of this program, Jacobs and the Scholars highlight the program's mentoring component. In an ACS Comment in C&EN in 1993, Heininger noted that these three minority groups do not traditionally have mentors and support systems that urge educational advancement.

All of these students are really good, and yes, the money helps, but they needed something else, so we tried to have mentors, says Zaida C. Morales-Martinez, an analytical chemist born in Puerto Rico and now an emeritus professor at Florida International University. She participated in Heininger's initial task force. Better known to students as Mama Z, Morales-Martinez has matched Scholars with mentors since 1999. Mentors are volunteers. It is completely from the goodness of their heart, she says.

The goal is to match each student with a mentor in the student's school, but that is hard to do, Morales-Martinez says. In 2004, she was excited to be able to pair 90% of Scholars with mentors. It is especially important to find mentors for students transferring from two-year schools, she says. But she tells every student-whether they have their own mentor or not-that she is their mentor-at-large. Many of them still keep in touch with her.

A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Bernadette A. Hernandez-Sanchez underscores the importance of strong mentorship. She is the first member of her family to attend college. Before meeting a mentor in high school, however, she didn't even know she wanted to go to college, let alone know about opportunities to go on to get a doctorate in inorganic chemistry at Colorado State University. She met her mentor, a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, through a career enrichment program at her high school. Working in his lab cemented her desire for more schooling. When Hernandez-Sanchez was a sophomore at the New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology, in Socorro, her mentor mentioned the ACS Scholars Program and remained her mentor when she was named a Scholar. There were a lot of personal situations that came up that made me want to stop, but having a mentoring relationship helped me get past those situations, she says.

I could go on about how one opportunity can lead to another, Hernandez-Sanchez says. For example, as a graduate student in 2002, she was named a U.S. delegation member for the 52nd Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany. I am thankful for the opportunities I have received because I was given a chance by ACS. Coming full circle, she is now a postdoctoral fellow in her mentor's lab at Sandia and is applying to get a permanent position there.

Scholars are also encouraged to mentor each other. For example, as a freshman at MIT, Lopez was paired with Epps, who was a senior at the time. Epps was a fantastic mentor, Lopez says. Very few people would have that opportunity to be connected almost immediately with someone who had been through the entire program. Together, they mapped out Lopez' course of study. Lopez was thrilled to get tips on what order to take classes and what professors to approach for research opportunities. Epps says the experience made him consider teaching. They lost touch after Epps graduated but saw each other again at the Scholars' reunion event at the recent ACS national meeting in Washington, D.C.

The Scholars are not the only ones giving the program accolades. In 1997, the American Society of Association Executives recognized the Scholars Program with the Association's Advance America Award. In 2001, the program won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering. In 2003, the BEST Inititative, a congressional mandate for broadening the base of the U.S. science and technology workforce, noted the program's exemplary efforts to improve access to and preparation for science education in minority groups.

The students commend the ACS Scholars team, including Hughes and Morales-Martinez, for the program's success. Every single student who spoke with C&EN remembers lots of personal contact. The track record is excellent because of the care they put into administrating this program. They really follow the Scholars. They really track the Scholars, and they keep in touch with all of us over the years, says Kim Morgan, one of the first Scholars and now a regulatory toxicologist at the Environmental Protection Agency. She knew other Scholars both at Spelman College, Atlanta, as a biochemistry major and at Albert Einstein College of Medicine while she completed a Ph.D. in physiology and neurosciences. For her, the Scholars Program was an opportunity to network at professional meetings, but it also turned out to be a way to build lasting friendships. To this day, another Scholar remains her close friend.

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?

For applications and more information about the ACS Scholars Program, go to chemistry.org/scholars or contact Robert J. Hughes at r_hughes@acs.org.