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Lipton Gonzalez, for example, is a biology professor's dream. In high school he scored the maximum "5" on the advanced placement tests in biology and calculus. Now a college sophomore, he has a 3.9 grade point average and is working on a research project on how coronary bypass surgery affects platelet and neutrophil levels in the blood. But he could not afford a four-year college. Instead, he lives at home and attends the Kendall campus of Miami-Dade Community College, which charges only $471 per semester for tuition. Two-thirds of Kendall's 20,000 students are Hispanic. "Sometimes people rag on us because we go to a community college," says Lipton, who was born in Cuba. But now he and several dozen classmates are getting the chance to prove themselves by attending free courses and carrying out research with professors at the nearby University of Miami, which also pays them stipends, covers their community college tuition, and, if they do well, invites them to complete their junior and senior years at the university tuition-free. "I'm doing things that I've never tried before and I really like it," says first-year student Tatiana Ferreiro, who is learning to use new stable isotope techniques to study how the intrusion of saltwater affects photosynthesis rates and the broader health of freshwater plants in Florida. "The only way you can really learn about science is to experience it yourself." Betty Blanco, who is sequencing DNA to learn about genetic variation among small Florida mammals that are environmentally threatened, says, "I consider this a pathway to what I want to do next." Most of the Miami-Dade students come from working-class families. Most hope to obtain medical degrees, but others want to become veterinarians, biomedical engineers, or geneticists. Their determination and performance belie any notion that scientific talent is limited to elite universities. "Some community college students are among our very best students," says Merna Villarejo of the University of California-Davis, which enrolls more than 300 transfer students in biology each year. "The reasons for going to community colleges these days are primarily economic." "Some of these kids are just wicked smart," agrees Karen Olmstead, an ecologist at the University of South Dakota who directs an outreach program for students at community and tribal colleges. Olmstead is quick to add, however, that Native American students at the University of South Dakota are nearly four times more likely to drop out than others. Support programs, she says, are essential for easing the transition for those coming from distant two-year colleges or directly from reservations. Many universities are strengthening their ties with two-year community, tribal, and technical colleges, whose size and mission vary considerably from state to state. In addition to bringing talented students on campus to study and carry out research, for instance, the University of Miami coordinates its course offerings with two-year colleges, making it easier for students to transfer, and provides sabbaticals for faculty members from two-year colleges to strengthen their skills. Michael Gaines, who chairs Miami's biology department, meets often with faculty members at Miami-Dade. He also travels regularly to area high schools to encourage minority students to take advantage of the program after they graduate. "We want to expose them to research," Gaines says, "and even get them to consider science as a career." The key to such collaborations, participants say, is genuine collegiality. "People from universities need to understand that we have as much interest in science as they do," says Robert Pope, who chairs Kendall's biology department. "We just have a very different mission. If they approach us with a spirit of teamwork, they'll find cooperation. If they treat us as inferiors who haven't quite made the grade, they'll hit a stone wall."
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ny serious effort to attract more minority students to science must
involve two-year colleges. More than 50 percent of minorities underrepresented
in the sciences begin their college education at two-year colleges—and
many have the ability and desire to succeed in science.
Another way to encourage more minority students to pursue biology is by
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