Harlem Children Society 2008 Induction Ceremony: Andrew Duff (1/2)

On July 1st, 2008, Harlem Children Society (HCS) inducted over 700 high school and undergraduate students into its premier Science, Engineering, Mathematics & Bio/Medical Internship Program in a ceremony of Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University. The inductees, primarily high school students, are all from extremely impoverished and under-served backgrounds; 95% of whom are minorities, and over 58% are young women. The event opened with entertainment. In a demonstration of virtual global unity, it featured simultaneous LIVE video conferencing with HCS sister sites in the Hopi reservation in Arizona, Mexico, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, India and New Zealand. Various local leaders and dignitaries, including ministers of education, science and technologies, government heads, & diplomats, were guests in respective sister site locations for the simulcast ceremony. Special guests attending the program in NYC featured NYC Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society President, Mr. Andrew Duff. The program also featured student presentations from NYC, the Hopi reservation in Arizona, and Meru, Kenya.

HCS was founded by Dr. Sat Bhattacharya, Molecular Geneticist and Cancer Research Scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. HCS is an organization for the Advancement of Science and Technology for under-resourced and under-served young adults in New York City, across the USA and Globally, serving high school students in the most poverty-stricken areas of New York and various communities throughout the country, and increasingly expanding and applying our model globally. The students perform one-on-one hands-on science research in a myriad of fields in science, technology, math, and engineering with accomplished mentors in leading universities, hospitals, and research centers like NASA and other esteemed institutions. These students—43% of whom are African American, 26% Hispanic, and 10% Native American—are exposed to new vistas they would have otherwise never seen. In a time when people are losing interest in science, engineering, and technology careers, the Harlem Children Society hopes to revitalize these fields with some of our most gifted youth from these neglected communities. Year 2008 has over 1000 Mentors in over 100 Institutions assisting and mentoring 300 students from over 100 schools in U.S. alone.

Visit HCS at: http://www.harlemchildrensociety.org/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Harlem
• Children
• Society