BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CRESTVIEW HILLS -- After nine years, Cincinnati Bell's summer enrichment program to encourage minority high school students to pursue careers in science and technology has outgrown its space at the company's training facilities.
The week-long program, which runs through Saturday this year, has shifted to Thomas More College. The BEST (Building Enthusiasm for Science and Technology) program is a joint effort by Cincinnati Bell and MATRIXX. About five dozen students are participating this year.
"We were looking at alternatives and decided to enhance the BEST program by moving it to a college campus environment," said program coordinator Patricia Bready. "We chose Thomas More College for a variety of reasons: We have a good working relationship with them, their campus is close to downtown and we are supportive of their efforts to diversify their student population."
In May, Thomas More College announced a goal to double its 5 percent black student population by 2001. Fifteen hundred full- and part-time students were enrolled at Thomas More College during the 1997-98 academic year. Seventy-five of the 1,500 are African-American. The college hopes the collaborative effort will increase black students' exposure to Thomas More College.
"Part of our excitement in participating in the BEST program is that it will allow us to have greater exposure in the African-American community," said Laura Koehl, vice president for enrollment management and planning at Thomas More.
"We want to be able to reflect the population that is around us. We felt that it was important to have a diverse student body reflected on campus."
Also, organizers hope that by moving the program to the campus, it will expose students to a college environment. During the program, students work on projects in the science and computer labs, while at the same time gaining information about the school, Ms. Bready said.
Participants are also learning about Thomas More's degree programs and student support systems.
Black students at Thomas More will participate in a Teen Summit today. The summit is designed for college and high school students to discuss issues confronting teens, including making the transition from high school to college, and the emotional, educational and financial support available at the college.
Saturday, renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson will be the keynote speaker at a luncheon for BEST students.
Students in the BEST program go through a three-step program over three summers.
The emphasis of the first year is a combination of hardware engineering concepts and projects; the second year focuses on software engineering concepts, the Internet and a software project to challenge the students' technical insight and creativity; and in the third year, students are introduced to several business management concepts by developing a competitive market analysis and participation in a business simulation project.
