Better living through chemistry


  • April 14, 2014
  • /   Reggie Dogan
  • /   education

Attending graduate school never occurred to Janae Baptiste until she joined the University of West Florida’s Chemistry Scholars Program.

Now Baptiste is pursuing a doctoral degree in chemistry at the University of Maryland.

“Interacting with and talking to faculty motivated me to pursue higher education,” said Baptiste, who received a biochemistry degree in 2013. “They believed in me and that made me believe in myself.”

UWF’s Chemistry Scholars Program’s mission is to recruit and retain high-achieving chemistry students and to increase the number of students pursuing doctoral or dual medicine/doctoral degrees, both with an emphasis on under-represented, or minority, students.

Baptiste is among a group of 11 students who were accepted in the program’s inaugural class. Since the program’s inception in 2011, the number of under-represented chemistry students pursuing professional or medical degrees has increased from 2 percent from 2008 through 2012 to 31 percent in the 2013-2014 academic year.

UWF assistant chemistry professor Karen Sinclair Molek, the program’s director, credits the success of the program to motivated students and faculty. Spending more time with students gave professors more opportunities to talk freely with students about social, economic, ethnic and financial issues affecting their lives, she said.

Going beyond the role of mentoring, they began discussing ways the students could break down barriers that could hinder them from seeking a post-graduate education, Molek said.

“I can give you stats all day, but what matters most is that the faculty got on the ground with students to improve retention, talk about the quality of their education and help them decide where they’re going,” Molek said. “That has helped not just minority, but majority students as well.”

UWF’s Chem Scholar Program is modeled after the Meyerhoff Scholars Program set up by Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, and the Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program directed by Michael Summers, a UWF chemistry graduate.

Students in the program meet monthly to hear guest speakers discuss summer research programs and post-graduate opportunities, receive career advice, participate in peer-to-peer mentoring and receive professional development and mentoring from faculty in the chemistry department.

The program’s goals include:

-- Increasing the retention of students, especially under-represented chemistry students.

--  Increasing the percentage of students pursuing post-graduate education.

--  Providing scholarships, priority registration and graduation honors.

Molek said about 55 percent of UWF chemistry students go onto graduate or professional programs.

UWF plans to expand the program to other STEM areas. It already has submitted a $2.1 million proposal to the National Institute of Health for a biology and physics scholar program.

Baptiste, a graduate of Escambia High School, postponed a job search to continue her education, thanks to the Chem Scholars Program.

“I had planned to look for a job in Pensacola in a related field,” she said. “Now, I’m really looking forward to the challenges of working through difficult projects to get the results of achieving a Ph.D.”

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