I n a Bronx, N.Y., high school where the dropout rate was 60 percent, a guidance counselor declined to give Stephon Alexander an application to an Ivy League university. He was accepted to Cornell on a four-year scholarship, and will graduate May 29 from Brown with a doctorate in physics.
Science is cool, and they can do it.
Here's another alternative than basketball and football that pays. A lexander is among six graduate students in the physics department who are showing teen-agers that high school science and math can lead them into powerful careers. With the advent of the calculator and computer, scientific theory or quantitative thinking - that's gone completely out of the window. She said most students lack confidence because they come from homes that lack an emphasis on academics. For some, English is a second language.