STRONG program aims to increase diversity in
biological sciences
By Kim Colavito Markesich
In 2003, Dean Kirklyn Kerr asked Professor of Nutritional Sciences Hedley Freake to
attend a leadership conference. The workshop required participants to work for a year
with a mentor; in Freake’s case, the mentor was then-Associate Dean Suman Singha.
Freake concentrated on two projects. For one, he worked with Vice Provost Ronald
Taylor to develop a mentoring plan for faculty and staff; for the second project, he
worked with Singha on a plan with the state’s community colleges to diversify the
undergraduate student body at UConn.“
There is a rich pool of students who for economic reasons or deficient college prep
curricula during high school, have chosen community college as a means to further
education,” says Freake. “They may not be as well prepared but are just as able as any
other student.”
Freake felt so strongly about this project that he wrote a proposal for, and was awarded, a
five-year, $2 million dollar National Science Foundation grant for a new program,
“Science and Technology: Reaching Out to a New Generation in Connecticut”
(STRONG). The program, a collaboration between UConn, Manchester Community
College, Quinebaug Valley Community College and Three Rivers Community College, is
aimed at increasing the enrollment in UConn’s biological sciences of first-generation and
minority students, particularly those historically underrepresented at the University.
Sixty-six percent of Connecticut’s African American and Hispanic undergraduates attend
community college. At least two-thirds of the students at community colleges are the first
in their family to attend college.
Ten students from each of the three community colleges will be recruited. They will
matriculate at UConn as juniors. Additionally, ten students will be selected to enter
UConn as freshman.
“It’s all very well to get them to the University,” says Freake, “but you have to make sure
to give them every opportunity to succeed.”
The students will be part of a support system that will begin at the community college
level and continue until students graduate from UConn. Students will be mentored by a
scholar in a similar program of study. Students will learn what it takes to become a
scientist and become familiar with career options in their field.
Each year, the undergraduates will take a one-credit seminar course dealing with a
relevant issue:
• First-year students will learn to improve their study skills, particularly focusing on
quantitative aspects of science courses.
• The second-year seminar will focus on the transition from community college to oncampus university life.
• Third-year students will become involved in hands-on research at UConn. “Working
within a laboratory setting helps a student integrate into the University on a social and
cultural level and to feel more a part of the program,” says Freake.
• The fourth-year seminar focuses on career or graduate school options.
Freake is confident that the program will be successful. He is working on recruiting
faculty members within the College to serve as mentors and advisors. Counselors from
the University’s Division of Enrollment Management will help with financial aid
applications. The program will also provide a book stipend.
“In five years, I’d like to see a more diverse student body within the College and also
within the University, which is to everyone’s benefit, both students and faculty,” he says.
“I’d like to see a better relationship between the University and community colleges, so
we are clearly working together to support the educational needs of all students.”
“This program can expand what these students think is doable. It’s about allowing them
to believe that they can go further than they thought both in terms of their education and
their life.”