By Richard Paul
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-672419.mp3
Norfolk, VA – Just last month, the National Science Foundation released its latest Science and Engineering Indicators report. Amongst the data, is a list of 50 colleges and universities awarding the most degrees to African-Americans in science and engineering. Of course there's Spelman, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell. But also in that mix of top schools, is Norfolk State University. Norfolk State initiated a program in 1985 to encourage African-American students to pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math. The demonstrated success of their (STEM) program seems to indicate that both current and former scholarship recipients have enjoyed considerably higher graduation rates, as well as the ability to earn graduate and professional degrees at much higher rates than their peers. We follow a number of researchers currently crunching the numbers to determine how NSU has been able to do that, in hopes other schools may follow in their footsteps.