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Students and faculty at SAMS - Photo by Luther B. Young III, Carnegie Mellon
More than 730 rising high school juniors and seniors applied for 55 open spots in Carnegie Mellon University's Summer Academy for Mathematics + Science. The six-week program, which ends August 6th this year, is marking its first decade.
Since its inception, more than 800 students from 41 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have attended SAMS. The majority of participants are from historically underrepresented groups in STEM careers.
"We recruit students interested in science and math who are performing well academically, but not fulfilling their potential,” said Ty Walton, director of SAMS and the Carnegie Mellon Advising Resource Center. “We help good students become excellent students.”
The goal of the program is to encourage more students to pursue engineering, science, computer science and other math-based majors and prepare them for admission to selective colleges and universities. 70 students (55 new, plus 15 returning for a second year) participated in the 2010 Summer Academy for Mathematics + Science.
The program is a rigorous residential summer experience for students who have a strong interest in math and science. SAMS focuses on creating interest in technical disciplines and building academic and personal skills to better prepare young people for the college application process.
As of September 2009, 83 SAMS alumni had enrolled at Carnegie Mellon. Alumni are also gaining admission to other top-ranked research institutions. Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have each been home to nine SAMS alumni. Multiple alumni also have enrolled at each of the following schools: Dartmouth, Duke, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard, Princeton, Rochester Institute of Technology, Tufts, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Pennsylvania and Yale.
SAMS Student doing a lab assignment - Photo by Luther B. Young III, Carnegie Mellon
Evan Moss, a mechanical engineering major at Carnegie Mellon, attended SAMS in 2007 and 2008. This year, he served as a resident assistant for SAMS.
"From the time you start SAMS," Evan says, "You're talking about the SAMS family." Evan confesses he wasn't a big believer at the beginning, “but at the end of that first program I boo hoo'ed when I was trying to say bye to people. Whenever somebody mentions a good school, I probably know someone who goes there and most of the time it's from other people that went to SAMS with me," he says.
"While one goal of SAMS is to attract talented students to Carnegie Mellon," Walton said, "another goal is to create a network of students and professionals who support one another and collaborate on academic projects and research."
The objective of the Summer Programs for Diversity is to expand the pipeline by enrolling high school students who will grow educationally and personally, and succeed in gaining admission to selective colleges and universities. SAMS students take courses and complete research projects in computer science, engineering, math and science.
Jeffrey Peterson, a physics professor in CMU's Mellon College of Science, has been teaching a SAMS electronics course for five years. He has observed many students who develop the confidence to pursue careers in fields they previously thought were out of their reach.
SAMS Student Circuits Class - Luther B. Young III, Carnegie Mellon
"The students build circuits every day, starting with very simple ones and working up to quite complex circuits," Peterson said. "Many students are very timid at first, convinced this type of work is beyond their ability. Most of the circuits don't work at first, but they learn to use an oscilloscope to diagnose problems. Pretty soon they are modifying the designs and coming up with their own. By the end, some students say 'I could be an engineer.'"
"I'd known I wanted to do mechanical engineering since I was way, way young," Evan says. "Coming here did reinforce that. I took a robotics course that got me interested in building stuff and figuring how things work." After Evan got back from his first SAMS camp something changed. "For me, my study plan was between video games and between commercials in TV, " he says candidly. SAMS changed all that. "It was totally different. I remember the first time I said, 'You know what, I'm going to study' I shut down my Xbox and turned off my TV. I was like 'Wow! I just did that'"
Jessika Louissaint also has experienced firsthand the impact of the 10-year-old Summer Academy for Mathematics + Science program, which helps encourage more students to pursue engineering, science, computer science and other math-based majors and to prepare them for admission to selective colleges and universities.
"My math skills went up completely, especially with my SATs," Jessika says. “I was more social in school. I went to a program and did really well there. It's great to see that growth in yourself," she states confidently. Jessika is a 2007 and 2008 SAMS alumna. She is currently a biological sciences and policy and management major at Carnegie Mellon and, like Evan, she is a resident assistant for SAMS this summer.
Students who are entering their junior or senior year and are considering careers in engineering, science and other math-based disciplines are eligible to apply. Students must be at least 15 years old to participate in SAMS. Separate tracks are developed for each grade level.
SAMS students also participate in SAT preparation courses and workshops focused on the college application process. A survey of SAMS alumni who took the SAT from 2001 to 2008 found an average increase of 57.5 points in critical reading and 57.2 points in math following the program. The College Board reported in 2009 an average gain of 12 points in critical reading and 13 points in math following one SAT retake.
There are no housing and dining fees for SAMS students, and there is no tuition thanks to internal, alumni, corporate and foundation support. Alumnus Russ Crockett (CIT '87) recently provided the program with a $50,000 endowed gift. This year's corporate and foundation supporters include Boeing Co., Cisco Systems Inc., Motorola, Siemens Foundation and Eden Hall Foundation.
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