The 2012 UCSB–FAMU Scholars (l-r): Adam Bailey, Lois Harmon, Eugene Bellamy Jr., and Darrius Stanley.
The UC Santa Barbara–Florida A&M University (UCSB–FAMU) Partnership welcomes four students selected for the 2012 UCSB–FAMU Educational Evaluation Research Scholars Program to be held on UCSB's campus from June 24 to August 11, 2012. Adam Bailey, Eugene Bellamy Jr., Lois Harmon, and Darrius Stanley are the first cohort of students from Florida A&M University admitted into the program that consists of academic and co-curricular research activities designed to train participants in educational evaluation and prepare them for doctoral work at the University of California.
Lois Harmon and Darrius Stanley just completed undergraduate degrees at FAMU. Harmon graduated from FAMU's Elementary Education Program majoring in Elementary Education. Stanley graduated as a History Education major in FAMU's Social Science Education Program. Adam Bailey and Eugene Bellamy Jr. are both recipients of Masters degrees from FAMU's Educational Leadership Program. A rigorous student selection process identified these FAMU students for the 7-week Summer Program. Each student will have an individualized research plan as well as a team of mentors to address his/her specific academic and professional interests.
The Scholars Program is one the key elements of "Connecting Networks: UCSB and FAMU," an initiative funded in 2011 by the UC Office of the President's University of California–Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative (UC–HBCU). Dr. John T. Yun and Dr. Patricia Marin serve as the co-Principal Investigators for this program.
The University of California continues to seek ways to attract and enroll scholars from historically excluded populations. At the graduate level, African Americans/Blacks are the most underrepresented group in relation to their U.S. population. The five-year average (2006-2010) for enrollment of African Americans in UC academic doctoral programs is 2.5%. In an effort to improve the representation of African Americans/Blacks in its graduate programs, particularly its Ph.D. programs, the UC will invest in cultivating relationships and establishing programs with communities and institutions that produce African American graduates from high schools, undergraduate colleges, and universities as well as institutions producing graduates with master's degrees. The UC will invest in such collaborations both to actively demonstrate the value placed on cultural and social diversity throughout its campuses and to make meaningful, sustained progress in addressing longstanding inequities in access to UC. The goal of the UC–HBCU Initiative is to increase the number of scholars from HBCUs enrolling in UC academic doctoral programs.