Eight weeks ago, none of the 10 students -- eight undergraduates and two on their way to graduate school, from around the United States and the Caribbean -- quite knew what they were getting into. They came to Cornell for a taste of the grad school experience, a chance to build a strong foundation in the fundamentals and to explore new areas of research in applied math.

The students were the pilot class of the Summer Math Institute (SMI), a program conceived by Cornell graduate students to boost diversity in the field and to give promising undergraduates the tools they will need to succeed in competitive math courses.

When the students arrived in June, they figured they were in for a challenging summer. Seven weeks later, as the program came to a close with final presentations and a celebratory banquet -- they realized how right they had been.

"I'm exhausted," said Ashley Crump, a senior from Howard University.

And they were a little stunned -- in a giddy sort of way -- that they had pulled it off.

There had been a lot to do -- an advanced analysis class every morning, work on research projects in the afternoon, weekly presentations on their research and weekly guest lectures to attend. Evening study hours trickled into late-night work sessions, with a few all-nighters toward the end.

The idea for SMI came when grad students in the applied math program noticed a drop in the department's diversity, coincidental with the departure to Arizona State University of Carlos Castillo Chavez, a professor who had been active at Cornell recruiting women and minorities into math.

Lack of diversity in mathematics is a problem nationwide. According to a 2004 report by the American Mathematical Society, just 5 percent of mathematics doctorates going to U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the past 10 years went to people who are black, Hispanic or Native American.

"A few [of the grad students] got together and said, 'We need to do something about this,'" said Steve Strogatz, Cornell professor of theoretical and applied mechanics and program co-director with math professor Ravi Ramakrishna. "They took the initiative, and they created a program. They encouraged us to do the right thing."

The grad students --Yannet Interian, Joe Tien and former grad student Sharad Goel (now an assistant professor at Stanford University) -- chose a model that included an advanced analysis class (taught by Goel) and a separate research project (Interian led a project on networks and algorithms; Tien oversaw one on neurobiology).

They scrambled to write grant proposals and put out the word that they were seeking applicants. From more than 300 applications, they chose students they thought would benefit most, with an eye toward selecting from underrepresented groups.

The students they chose were nearly all women, members of a minority group or both. "We didn't pick the people necessarily with the highest grades," said Strogatz. "We picked people who you might say were diamonds in the rough, who maybe haven't shined yet, but have potential to shine."

Funding came from Cornell's math department, the Center for Applied Mathematics (CAM), the College of Engineering, the Office of the Provost, the Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation. It covered travel, room and board, a stipend for each student, funds to attract weekly guest speakers from other universities, a day on the Hoffman Challenge Course as an icebreaker in the beginning and a weekend jaunt to New York City.

Mostly, though, there was work.

"It was really tough," said Jaret Flores, a senior from the University of Kansas. "But a lot of the people here are really determined. We didn't want to let this stop us."

And they had encouragement. "It's definitely a supportive environment," said Crump. "The other CAM students are always here, helping us. It's cool to have people around who are where we want to be someday."

For Terrence Pendleton, a quiet, thoughtful senior at Alabama A&M University, that made all the difference. "Everybody really worked with me," he said.

"They've been working really hard these past few weeks," said Ramakrishna. "I think they're going to go home pretty proud of what they've accomplished this summer. They did really well."

Pendleton was all grins, making wry, easy jokes at the banquet that followed.

"It all came together at the end," he said. "It's been really great. Now that I think about it, I think there's no way I could have stood up and said what I said today without this program. It pushed me to the limit. And it showed me that at the end of the day, I still enjoy it."