Nikki Adame '99, right, a tutor with the Cornell Ithaca Math Enrichment Program, works with Ithaca High School 10th-grader Seun Soth in the 160 Warren Hall computer lab on April 15. Scott Quinn/University Photography
Why can't top educational resources be used to benefit all students?
That's the question Cornell's Carlos Castillo-Chavez, chair of the Biometrics Unit and associate professor of biomathematics, has attempted to address by creating the Cornell Ithaca Math Enrichment Program (CIMEP).
The program provides "historically and economically disadvantaged" Ithaca High School students with the opportunity to take the introductory course Biometry 90 at Cornell. It is funded by Cornell's Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI), which Castillo-Chavez directs, the Office of the Provost and the Ithaca City School District.
Following his lecture to 10th-grade CIMEP students in Warren Hall's computer lab earlier last month, Castillo-Chavez explained that the major impetus for establishing the program was to address the disparity of access to computers for economically disadvantaged IHS students.
The 15 students participating in the program this year come from a range of racial, ethnic and geographical backgrounds. Through the program, they are able to use the university's libraries and computing facilities and are introduced to applications of mathematics in biology and to topics such as probability, statistics and population dynamics.
CIMEP begins in February and lasts 10 weeks. Classes and labs are held on campus twice during the week and for four hours on Saturdays. In addition to free tuition and transportation, participating students receive a weekly stipend.
"We look at students that have little experience with computers and a lot of financial need," said Castillo-Chavez. The staff that supports CIMEP includes five Cornell undergraduate students, an IHS senior and Miguel Unzueta, associate program coordinator of CIMEP and MTBI.
"Here they will get more attention than they probably have ever had in their academic lives," Castillo-Chavez said of the program's high school participants.
Students also are taken to various educational sites on campus as part of the program, including the Geology department and the supercomputer facility at the Theory Center. At the end of the program, they will write five-page papers detailing their experience and will attend a graduation brunch, scheduled for May 3 at the Statler Hotel, where the keynote speaker will be Judith Pastel, superintendent of the Ithaca City School District.
The five undergraduate assistants and IHS senior who tutor for the program help CIMEP students during lectures, labs and with instruction.
"They learn together. Sometimes the kids get the concepts as fast as the assistants," Castillo-Chavez said. "It's a good experience for everybody."
But, Castillo-Chavez points out, faculty assistance for programs like CIMEP is minimal and falls disproportionally in the hands of minority faculty. And the burden on minority faculty to help create opportunities to increase the diversity of students in all fields and in all levels on campus, as well, is immense, he said.
Castillo-Chavez has been pleased with the success of CIMEP's first year, however, and feedback from the participants is good.
"The work is hard, but I'm learning things here that I'm not able to in high school," said IHS student Tan Tran.
"Every kid should come out of Ithaca with a great education," said Castillo-Chavez. "If Cornell faculty just do a bit more for economically disadvantaged students, we can do it."