Remarks of Jason Bowen re: UC LEADS – July 18, 2002 Regents
I’d like to thank all of you for the opportunity to share with you a little
bit about my life and about the impact UC LEADS has had on it. Since I can
remember, I’ve always excelled in math, and it seems that others have
recognized this. In the 7th grade I remember being given my own book with
which to study because I was so much ahead of the rest of my class;
however, I was seated in the back corner of the classroom with no help, and
soon I was back with the other students. I lacked direction. It would have
been nice had someone recognized the gift I have and decided to nurture it.
This is not to say that I had no positive academic influences in my life. My
grandparents bought me books and toys to satisfy and build my scientific
curiosities, and through the influence of my best friend Mark, who was
planning to attend college, I decided that I too could go to college and
succeed. I thought: “I’m as smart as Mark.” We were in the same math class
during our senior year in high school and I scored the highest marks on the
exams. We took the SAT together, and I was positive our scores would be
similar; but I scored a 940, and he scored 1150. I couldn’t figure out why I
scored lower than he did, but it didn’t bother me too much, I had actually
thought I did pretty well.
I went on to Morehouse College and flunked out after a year. I returned to
Riverside and attended Riverside Community College (the local junior
college), where I struggled for 5 years before transferring to the University
of California, Riverside. It was during the spring quarter of my first year at
UC Riverside that, through some friends, I met Christina Agda of the
University Honors Department. She asked my friends if they knew any great
students (she was shopping around for her program), and they mentioned
me. She asked me to fill out an application for the new UC LEADS
program, which I did that night at work (I worked a graveyard shift at a
youth center for 5 years while in college). The truth is, I almost passed up
the opportunity to be a part of such a great program. I was already working
in Chancellor Raymond Orbach’s lab, and so I figured I didn’t need to join
any program that asked me stay on at UCR an extra year. The UC LEADS
program is a 2-year program and I was in my junior year. To join the
program I had to forgo my graduation an extra year. After discussing things
over with friends, I decided to join the program, and I believe that deciding
to join the program was difference between getting into Berkeley for
graduate school or not.
UC LEADS is an acronym for the University of California’s
Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees program. The purpose of
the program, is to better the chances for admittance of disadvantaged
students into top graduate schools. This is accomplished through 2 summer
research experiences (the first one at the home campus and the 2nd one at
another UC campus), workshops, GRE prep courses, conferences, and
symposia.
While in the LEADS program I learned that graduate school is about
research, and that I can never get enough research experience. During my
first summer research experience with UC LEADS I worked in Dr. Orbach’s
lab while participating in GRE workshops. At the end of the summer I gave
a 10-minute presentation of my research to faculty and peers that was the
first real academic presentation I had ever given. For my 2nd summer in the
program, I worked in Professor George Smoot’s lab at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Through that experience, I was able
to meet many great physicists as well as secure a pivotal letter of
recommendation from Dr. Smoot. I was accepted into Berkeley’s graduate
program in physics. I believe that my summer at UC Berkeley was a
determining factor of my admittance into the Ph.D. program in physics at
UC Berkeley
For the last two years I’ve been working in Dr. Orbach’s condensed
matter laboratory at UC Riverside studying spin glasses—a class of
disordered magnetic systems. The LEADS program supported my research
by buying computer equipment for use in theoretical analysis. The
calculations we’ve had to perform require considerable computing power,
hence the need for additional equipment. At the moment, we’re in the
process of completing a paper for submission for publication. UC LEADS
has also funded my participation in 2 conferences of the American Physical
Society (APS). I was first author on a submitted abstract and gave a 10minute oral presentation at the 2002 March Meeting of the American
Physical Society. Dr. Orbach was excited about our lab’s success, and I have
the two previous end-of-summer research presentations with LEADS to
thank for the training.
My graduate application, had I not been apart of UC LEADS would
have read something as follows: great GPA, favorable GRE scores, good
letters of recommendation, and good research experience. Now they read:
great GPA, favorable and strongly balanced GRE scores (my verbal score
increased 100 points as a result of the workshops I attended), great letters of
recommendation, great research experience (condensed matter theory at UC
Riverside, and experimental astrophysics at UC Berkeley), 2 conferences
attended, 2 published abstracts, 1 oral presentation at a major conference, 2
summer research presentations, and UC LEADS Scholar.
Since I was 16 I’ve always had the dream of becoming the world’s
greatest physicist. I read a book my cousin had stolen from the high school
library and from that moment I wanted to study physics; however, during my
final years as an undergraduate at UC Riverside, I’ve wavered somewhat
with regards to my dreams because of the realities I’ve had to embrace. Dr.
Neal Schiller and Marie Steward, who coordinate the LEADS program at
UC Riverside, have always been gentle and understanding of my
circumstances, while at the same time encouraging me to remain focused on
my dreams and to never settle for less than what I’ve wanted to accomplish.
I’m grateful to have been part of an incredible program and a part of a great
cohort of students—all 6 who’ve recently graduated are beginning Ph.D.
programs at UCs, and of which I am one. Thank you.