(739)THE EFFECTIVENESS OF RESEARCH INTERNSHIPS FORRECRUITING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS INTO SPECIALIZEDTECHNICAL DEGREE PROGRAMS

摘要

Over the past several years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of newinterdisciplinary degree programs offered by colleges and universities. The curricula ofthese programs typically weave together selected elements of traditional disciplines intohighly specialized fields of study such as bioinformatics and sustainability.Because these fields are so specialized one of the great challenges facing academicadministrators, particularly at the undergraduate level, is the recruitment of students. Thischallenge arises in part from the fact that virtually none of the prospective studentsreceive any exposure to these subjects in their high schools. As a result, even those whoare most likely to succeed in these programs have little understanding of the nature of thesubjects, and they have no awareness of post-graduation opportunities for employmentor advanced education. Without such information it comes as no surprise that very fewchoose to major in these subjects.In an effort to address this shortfall and attract more students, the Chester F. CarlsonCenter for Imaging Science (CIS) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)established a comprehensive, nationwide educational outreach program. This programemployed a variety of live classroom demonstrations, campus visits, summer internshipand online technologies to expose over 1000 secondary school students each year to thewealth of opportunities available in this field.The effectiveness of these various outreach initiatives has been tracked for several years.The data show that the payoff for most is very low, from 0%-2%. However the summerinternship has historically returned a much greater payoff – about 13%.The summer internship, during which high school students become paid employees ofRIT for seven weeks, is now in its 10th year. It has given 100 high school students theopportunity to work side-by-side with faculty, staff, and imaging science students,graduate and undergraduate, on actual sponsored research projects.