Physicists teach minority students

A MEXICAN—AMERICAN high‐school student in southern California is a member of a minority group with no academic tradition. He is likely to drop out of school through lack of personal and parental interest, and even if he does finish high school he will probably not go to college. Some physics and mechanical‐engineering faculty members at Stanford University are doing what they can to persuade these students to continue their education. At a four‐week program, held each summer at Stanford, Mexican–American students attend lectures, do some laboratory work, and socialize with staff members; thus they get a taste of college life and a feeling for modem science that is not available to them elsewhere. The budget is low, the results are mixed, yet the idea is spreading to other campuses in the US.

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