{"307341":{"#nid":"307341","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Project ENGAGES: It Takes a Community","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe third in a series of stories about Project ENGAGES, which recently began its second year at the Petit Institute.\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EProject ENGAGES, an ambitious high school education program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is evolving kind of like a bioengineered system, where organically-informed human innovation enhances the natural process. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt began with the common understanding that minorities are underrepresented in science and engineering fields, and with Bob Nerem\u2019s recognition that the only way to increase the pipeline of strong minority scholars was to reach back to grades K through 12. Nerem also believed that an extended program would be necessary to adequately serve the brilliant kids he imagined would be working and learning in the labs of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENow in its second year, the former Project ENGAGE has added an \u2018S\u2019 to better reflect its focus on science (ENGAGES stands for Engaging New Generations at Georgia Tech through Engineering and Science). It\u2019s also more than doubled in size (10 students completed the first year, and there will be 24 for the second, now in two different tracks \u2013 bioscience and engineering). And the program is already paying off in ways Nerem and his co-founder\/co-chair, Manu Platt, had always hoped. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cWhen these kids leave the program and put on their resume that they worked in a lab at Georgia Tech during high school, that\u2019s huge,\u201d says Platt, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, and diversity director for EBICS (for \u2018Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems,\u2019 an NSF Science and Technology Center, or STC, that is supported and resides in the Petit Institute, and is the vehicle through which Project ENGAGES was formed). \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThe other thing about this program that really stands out for me is the diversity training, which we take seriously. These students come from schools that are entirely African-American, so, not very diverse. But they are placed in a diverse environment and they interact with intelligent people of all types,\u201d Platt adds. \u201cThey interact, and they soon start to realize, \u2018these are just human beings, and I\u2019m a human being, and if it\u2019s within a human being to do this, it\u2019s within me to do this.\u2019\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd in Project ENGAGES, they get paid to do it. Each student earns $9 an hour for doing actual lab work \u2013 40 hours a week during the summer, 12 to 15 (or sometimes more) during the school year, time they otherwise would be spending in part-time jobs after school. A paying gig matters to students in economically challenged situations. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved science, so I was interested already when I heard of the opportunity at Georgia Tech,\u201d says Katrina Burch, a rising high school senior beginning her second year in Project ENGAGES. \u201cWe actually get to work in a lab and do real research, and it\u2019s a job.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt\u2019s a job to keep the program going, also. There is the NSF funding for the STC, of course. And Nerem, professor emeritus and founding director of the Petit Institute, has been successful in linking up with financial support from corporate and individual donors, while Platt has been more involved with designing and implementing the program. \u201cManu is the brains and I\u2019m the brawn,\u201d says Nerem, describing their co-leadership roles. That would probably make Lakeita Servance, who manages Project ENGAGES, the glue that holds it together. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EServance was working as a parent engagement specialist for the Georgia Department of Education, but was looking for an opportunity to interact directly with students in an administrative role. \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t know a lot about Project ENGAGES before applying for the job, but my interest was truly piqued during the interview as I learned how I would be able to play a role in crafting this program,\u201d says Servance, who joined the Petit Institute in May 2013 as the EBICS Education Outreach Manager, just as the first class of Project ENGAGES students were arriving for orientation at Georgia Tech. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThe community of students we\u2019re working with did not see themselves as belonging or fitting in with a place like Georgia Tech, and this program is breaking down that barrier,\u201d Servance adds. \u201cWe\u2019re taking students who have traditionally been overlooked and introducing them to new opportunities.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFIRST CLASS\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOver the past year, 10 students from two single-gender Atlanta Public Schools \u2013 Coretta Scott King Young Woman\u2019s Leadership Academy and B.E.S.T. Academy \u2013 have gotten a head-start on the college lab work experience, while dipping their toes into a bubbling cultural melting pot. Of those 10 students, eight produced research projects that advanced from the Atlanta Regional Science and Engineering Fair to the statewide event. Two of those students (Jovanay Carter and Amadou Bah) advanced to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. And another, Solomon McBride, won a Posse Scholarship to attend Brandeis University. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBefore any of that took shape, however, Nerem and Platt had to come up with the clay. They understood the need \u2013 more opportunities for underserved minority groups \u2013 and necessity begat invention. An important part of the EBICS mission is centered on diversity. The STC brings together scientists from Georgia Tech, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and seven other institutions, in a big picture focus to create biomachines that may cure diseases or clean up the environment. But they\u2019re also out to develop the next generation of scientists, with a high emphasis on increasing the recruitment, participation and retention of underrepresented minorities. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENerem, an associate director for EBICS, had some ideas on what might be the best way to achieve that. \u201cI decided that what was really necessary was to get these students fully immersed in a yearlong experience,\u201d says Nerem, who thought he could sell the program to potential sponsors. \u201cBut I knew that this old guy couldn\u2019t be a role model for young African American kids.\u201d So he went after his friend and colleague, Platt, who had first-hand knowledge of college-based high school programs aimed at minority students. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI was involved in program called FAME, which stands for Forum to Advance Minorities in Engineering. This was a weekend program during the school year with a local college, Delaware State University, a historically black school, and it was my entre into engineering,\u201d says Platt, a Georgia Cancer Coalition distinguished scholar, who came South to attend historically black, single-gender Morehouse College, and liked the idea of working with single-gender, minority-serving high schools in the Georgia Tech area. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI had ideas on how to sculpt the program, what the kids might need. I understand what the teachers and students and parents might be thinking, what it\u2019s like to be brand new here on campus,\u201d Platt says. \u201cThose are elements I considered, and what it would take to integrate them into a lab. It can be a tricky balance.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere had to be a buy-in not only from the high school kids, but the high school teachers and administration, and from the research teams at Georgia Tech. \u201cThe first thing we needed was to build relationships,\u201d Platt says. \u201cBob Nerem says science is a people business, and it certainly is.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EDuring the 2012-2013 school year, Platt and his lab did outreach at the participating high schools, brought demonstrations to the schools, invited science classes to the Petit Institute. They were planting the seeds for a sustained kind of engagement because, as Platt says, \u201cwe were building up to the first application process, so students would have an idea of what the program was all about \u2013 so they would want to apply. Of course, it was serendipitous that the Biomedical Engineering Society conference was in Atlanta around that time. So we thought, \u2018wouldn\u2019t it be cool to have a hands-on demo day and invite local high schools.\u2019\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo they recruited a team of students from the Coulter Department, mostly undergrads, who were in charge, Platt says, students with a heart for service (which are the kinds of students Platt looks for). The BMES conference in November 2012, at the Georgia World Congress Center was a great recruiting tool for the high school program taking shape, grabbing the interest of high school students (and bringing them together with college students just a year or two older, with shared interests and entirely different backgrounds), and also getting the attention of local media \u2013 Jim Burress of Atlanta public radio station WABE covered the event, and would follow-up nine months later with an in-depth five-part series on the first summer of Project ENGAGES. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA rigorous interview process \u2013 \u201cIt was nerve wracking,\u201d says Katrina Burch \u2013 resulting in one out of three applicants being chosen for Project ENGAGES. There were 12 students who went through the first \u201cBiocellular Bootcamp,\u201d two weeks of preparation involving hard science and soft skills. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cA big thing we do during boot camp is we build in professional development activities,\u201d says Platt. \u201cWe try to address what it will be like to integrate these young, black scientists successfully into a lab, which is not just about knowing science. It\u2019s how you get along with others, so there\u2019s a conflict resolution bit. Last year it was a little more informal.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENEW YEAR\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis year, Platt was ready with a professional diversity trainer. It was a relationship that began completely organically. \u201cI was on a 17-hour flight to South Africa, and you really get to know someone on a 17-hour flight,\u201d says Platt, who happened to be sitting next to Tamika Curry Smith, whose company, The TCS Group, provides human resources and diversity and inclusion solutions to corporate and non-profit clients. Long story short, Smith conducted two sessions for Project ENGAGES this summer, one with the high school students, and one with the mentors \u2013 there\u2019s a candle-lighting ceremony at the end of boot camp in which students and mentors are paired together, after having vetted each other during a \u201cspeed dating\u201d session. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re asking our lab people to do more than they were originally interested in doing several years ago, before there was a Project ENGAGES,\u201d Platt says. \u201cYou want the graduate student mentors and the postdoc mentors and the high school students to all feel like this is helpful to their progress.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOf the 12 students who began the program last summer, 10 finished the school year working regular weekly shifts in Georgia Tech labs, run by a handful of professors who share Platt\u2019s interest in outreach. All 10 of those students came back to work full-time schedules this summer. Five of the original 10 recently graduated high school, and will embark on the next stage of their education in the fall. But when the next semester arrives, the other five, all rising high school seniors like Burch, will continue in Project ENGAGES, while a new crew of hopeful young scientists, fresh out of boot camp, discovers the college lab experience. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFirst, it takes a lab, and a number of bio-researchers have stepped up. During the first year, high school students were working in labs run by Platt, Gang Bao, Tom Barker, Edward Botchwey and Robert Guldberg. A number of other scientists have offered their labs this year, including Ravi Bellamkonda, Ross Ethier, Yuhong Fan, and Hang Lu, among others. And it takes mentors, like postdoc Kristi Porter from Platt\u2019s lab, who worked with two students the first year, and considered it one of those rare win-win experiences. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI was particularly interested in this program because of my previous volunteer work as a high school college tour organizer and my passion for increasing science and math education for our youth,\u201d says Porter, who mentored Burch and Soloman McBride. \u201cI am incredibly proud of their growth as independent thinkers and scientists. They are dependable, and I am comfortable with giving them independent studies and experiments to perform. Also, since their projects are directly related to my own, we build off of each other\u0027s ideas and results. As a result, I\u2019m confident that we will be able to submit our combined efforts for publication by the end of the year.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENonetheless, this year it should be a bit easier for mentors, according to Servance. \u201cWe found that sometimes two students could be overwhelming for a single mentor, so this year we\u2019ve assigned one student per mentor,\u201d she says. \u201cIt means we\u2019ve had to recruit more mentors and of course more labs, but the response has been amazing. These are people who wanted to take on the responsibility.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EProject ENGAGES has expanded its scope this year, also. For one thing, they\u2019re including a new area high school, also in the Atlanta Public School system \u2013 KIPP Atlanta Collegiate. There are 10 new students on the biotech track, in addition to the five returning from last year, and they\u2019ve added nine students to what Nerem describes as, \u201ca more traditional engineering track,\u201d developed under the leadership of the Georgia Tech Research Institute. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat it means is more opportunity for more students, which is exactly why Gary Noble supports the program. One of Nerem\u2019s neighbors, Noble used to direct the HIV-AIDS program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now retired, he heard Nerem give a presentation about Project ENGAGES. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cIn the simplest of terms, I heard what Bob said and thought this was extremely important. They\u2019re providing opportunities that were otherwise unavailable to brilliant young people, giving them the chance to do great things that might not have been considered feasible before,\u201d Noble says. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor Tom O\u2019Brien, his engagement with Project ENGAGES is like the program itself, that bio-mixture of organic growth with human ingenuity, and generosity. Last August, he happened to be driving to work at Axion Biosystems, where he is president and CEO, when WABE aired one of its pieces on the high school program. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cIt piqued my interest. Then I heard the next story in the series,\u201d says O\u2019Brien, whose company is based on technology developed at Georgia Tech. \u201cThen I started asking how we could help. There are talented kids everywhere, and what a great idea this is \u2013 exposing kids to a STEM curriculum, giving them the tools they can use to create careers and contribute to science and discovery later on. We\u2019re committed to supporting the program as it continues to grow.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"High school education program builds strong system of support and leadership."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EHigh school education program builds strong system of support and leadership.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"High school education program builds strong system of support and leadership."}],"uid":"27195","created_gmt":"2014-07-09 08:23:02","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:45","author":"Colly Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"307331":{"id":"307331","type":"image","title":"Project ENGAGES co-founders, Bob Nerem and Manu Platt, with program manager, Lakeita Servance","body":null,"created":"1449244708","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:58:28","changed":"1475895015","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:15","alt":"Project ENGAGES co-founders, Bob Nerem and Manu Platt, with program manager, Lakeita Servance","file":{"fid":"199770","name":"bob_lakeita_manu_2_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bob_lakeita_manu_2_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bob_lakeita_manu_2_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1041817,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bob_lakeita_manu_2_0_0.jpg?itok=JoqQaias"}}},"media_ids":["307331"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/projectengage.gatech.edu\/","title":"Project ENGAGES website"}],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"126581","name":"go-ProjectEngages"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering \u0026amp; Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}