GIFTS AT WORK

Summer Institute Promotes Graduate School For Minorities

From the Duke News Service

May 29, 2002

For the second consecutive year, Duke will host the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute (RBSI), which seeks to get minority undergraduates interested in graduate school.

The five-week summer program is designed to simulate the academically intensive graduate school experience as well as provide mentoring for African American, Hispanic and American Indian students. Sponsored by the American Political Science Association (APSA), the RBSI is funded by the National Science Foundation and Duke.

The 20 students in this year's program - who attend such institutions as Princeton, Howard, Virginia, Winthrop, Wheaton, North Carolina Central, North Carolina A & T, St. Augustine's and Santa Clara - were chosen from a national applicant pool. The students will take two transferable credit courses (one in quantitative analysis, one in race and American politics) and, as a final project for both courses, prepare original empirical research papers. Top students are given the opportunity to present their research at APSA's annual meeting.

The institute, named in honor of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize winner and first black American to receive a doctorate in political science in 1934, moved to Duke in 2000 from the University of Virginia when Paula McClain, the institute's director, joined the Duke faculty. McClain, a political science professor, teaches the "Race and American Politics" course; Scott de Marchi, an assistant professor of political science, teaches the "Introduction to Statistical Analysis" course. Five Duke political science graduate students - Monique Lyle, Niambi Carter, Shayla Nunnally, Tom Scotto and Seth Jolly - along with Alan Kendrick, a predoctoral fellow in political science, will serve as teaching assistants for the institute.

"The hosting of the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute by Duke demonstrates its commitment to increasing graduate school opportunities for students of color not only locally, but on a national basis," McClain said.

The institute will run from June 2 through July 4.

[back to main gifts at work page]