Poster

Title: Mentoring Minority Youth in Biodiversity

Authors:
Robert J. Barney, Associate Research Director, Community Research Service, Land Grant Program, Kentucky State University
Terrell Washington, Kentucky State University
Sarah L. Hall, Kentucky State University

Abstract:
As an 1890 land-grant institution, part of the mission at Kentucky State University is to provide experiential learning opportunities for minority youth via summer programs.  The Research and Extension Apprenticeship Program (REAP) is a six-week, on campus program for high school students.  Each intern is assigned to a research program and works 7 hours a day, 4 days a week for 6 weeks side by side with faculty and support staff on a research topic.  On the final day of the program each intern must make a scientific PowerPoint presentation of their project to an audience of over 100 family members, interns and mentors.  Several students also made posters which are hung in the hallways on campus.  Displayed here is the poster made by my intern, Terrell Washington, a local high school rising senior entitled, “Behind the Scenes with Beetle Biodiversity”.  Terrell had little or no training in biodiversity-related issues and certainly had never before been in the field.  He created the poster with supervision but most of the words are his.  Programs like REAP can be used to not only teach valuable work-related skills, but also to introduce concepts of biodiversity to minority students who have had little exposure to them.