The Summer Research Program for Historically Underrepresented Students began at Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences eleven years ago. Since that time, more than 195 promising students from all over the United States have taken advantage of this opportunity to conduct original research with distinguished Columbia faculty members. The goal of the program is to increase the presence of individuals from traditionally underrepresented groups, specifically African American, Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and Native Americans, among the faculties of U.S. colleges and universities. It is our belief that early exposure to research in the area of Humanities, Natural Sciences, or Social Sciences increases knowledge, encourages students to develop their interests into academic careers, and develop skills that are necessary to succeed in graduate study.
Students receive an introduction to both the joys and the rigors of advanced academic work.
Thus the program is designed to approximate graduate study, particularly in mentor relationships, scholarly research, and independent living. The high academic standard challenges students to elevate their performance in all phases of their research to that of a graduate student in the same field. Students will develop a discipline-appropriate summer research agenda in collaboration with their faculty mentor. Many will develop a project out of on-going research, working in collaboration with faculty and graduate students. Others will design an independent study project for which their faculty mentor will provide supervision.