Freshmen get more than just a scholarship out of new program

Freshmen
get more than just a scholarship out of new program
…………………………………………………………………

BY DANA BENSON
Rice News Staff

Professor Bob
Patten gives freshman Ben Ratner a hard time. And Ratner
gives Patten a hard time right back. It’s part of what
makes their relationship so special.

The two are
paired up through the Century Scholars Program, which offers
a select group of Rice freshmen a scholarship and the opportunity
to conduct research with a faculty mentor. Their project?
An examination of Charles Dickens’ “Hard Times,”
what else?

Patten, the
Lynette S. Autrey Professor in Humanities, and Ratner, a
Hanszen College humanities major, meet weekly to work on
their research project, which explores the way in which
Dickens’ literature is taught in high school classrooms
and attempts to create appealing and effective study material
to attract student interest.

Their project
has seen overwhelmingly positive results so far. Next year,
Ratner will collaborate with a De Bakey High School teacher
to present a unit on “Hard Times” to all of the
school’s senior English classes.

Patten and Ratner’s
partnership is successful in other ways as well. Their natural
and relaxed rapport reveals a fondness for one another that
they both believe will extend beyond their two-year research
project.

The two exemplify
the success of the Century Scholars Program, initiated by
Vice President for Enrollment Ann Wright. The program, designed
to attract students ranked in the top 5 percent of all Rice
applicants, combines a $6,000 two-year merit scholarship
and research collaboration with a faculty mentor. Students
selected for the program also interact with one another
in social settings, like trips to Enron Field and the Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston.

The top students
are so strong, Wright noted, that they generally are admitted
to every university to which they apply, and in the past
Rice has found itself losing many of the top-echelon students
to such schools as Duke, Princeton, Stan-ford and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.

“Because
these students have so many options, we have to do something
special to get them,” Wright said. “And one thing
that very high ability students want is a close relationship
with faculty from the beginning. They don’t want to
be in large classrooms as freshmen; they want to have a
lot of personal attention. And they want to feel that they
are immediately getting involved in some high level academic
work.”

Students who
are admitted to Rice and offered a Century scholarship are
sent a list of available faculty projects, and they rank
their top three choices. The program’s faculty advisers,
Terrence Doody, professor of English, and Janet Braam, associate
professor of biochemistry and cell biology, then pair the
students with a faculty mentor, making every effort to match
students with an appropriate project.

Ratner’s
research collaboration with Patten was his No. 1 choice,
and it’s worked out better than he ever could have
anticipated. He commented that he didn’t expect to
conduct such intensive research until at least his senior
year. The Maryland native has been given the latitude by
Patten to set the direction of the research, and it was
Ratner who selected the novel “Hard Times” as
the focus of the project.

“I thought
that I would basically prepare work for him, that I would
come in and say ‘This is what I think,’ and he
would respond, ‘Well, maybe you’re right, but
let’s look in this other direction.’ But it hasn’t
been like that. We’re in this together, and we bounce
ideas off each other,” Ratner said. “The discussions
are mind-bending,” Patten added.

Cynthia Browne
is another freshman who has benefited from the Century Scholars
Program. As a high school senior, she had whittled her decision
down to Rice and Wake Forest University and chose Rice,
in large part because of the invitation to participate in
the Century Scholars Program.

The Wiess College
student is working under the mentorship of Charles Stewart,
professor of biochemistry and cell biology, on a project
that studies bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacterial
cells. Bacteriophage genes may contribute to satisfying
the current need for new antibiotics, according to Stewart.

Browne has been
assigned her own gene to study, and she conducts her own
experiments. She selected the project because she wanted
to be introduced to many of the procedures and research
skills needed in DNA cloning as genetics research is an
area she may pursue.

“Dr. Stewart
was wonderfully patient, working through the early experiments
with me step by step so that I learned the correct procedures,
and he was always there to explain any questions that I
might have,” Browne said, adding that her mentor was
considerate in other ways as well, asking about her life
and being understanding during busy, stressful periods.

Faculty adviser
Doody noted that not all students and mentors have the same
exceptional experiences as Browne and Stewart and Ratner
and Patten. Working with Wright and Jennifer Wilson, program
coordinator in the admissions office, Doody and his co-adviser
Braam already have targeted some possible changes, including
delaying the start of the research project until later in
the students’ first semester, giving them a chance
to get settled in to campus life.

Doody and Braam
act as liaisons between students, faculty and administrators
of the program. One of their main tasks, Doody explained,
is helping both faculty and students understand each other’s
expectations and limitations. For example, Doody said that
while some faculty members expected their students to conduct
focused research, in many instances the freshmen were more
curious, with broader interests. He added that some of the
most successful faculty mentors have been those who are
willing to adapt to their students’ interests. He cited
Richard Smith, the George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities
and professor of history, who changed his project from the
study of “Yijing,” one of the world’s most
widely read works of literature, to the study of the Falun
Gong movement to match the interest of his student, Eve
Bower.

Despite some
minor glitches, “this is a pretty cool program,”
Doody said, adding that he’s pleased with the number
and the quality of students in the program’s first
year.

Wright is pleased
with the program as well. Last year, 70 applicants were
offered admittance into the Century Scholars Program, and
16 accepted. The yield of attracting the top 5 percent of
applicants to Rice increased to 22.5 percent from 5 percent
before the program was created. Ninety students have been
offered Century scholarships for the program’s second
year, which will start next fall, and Wright would like
to see about 20 to 25 accept.

There is funding
for the program to grow to about 30 students, although Wright
does not know if it ever will get that large. She noted
that the program’s coordinators select students who
they think will be successful in conducting research, and
some years there may not be many applicants who show a major
talent for research.

Those who have
seen the success of the program include members of the Rice
Board of Trustees, who heard presentations from three of
the Century Scholars at the last board meeting.

The program
coordinators are pleased with the faculty involvement so
far as well. Forty faculty members submitted research proposals
for the first year of the program, and the number is similar
for the program’s second year.

“Faculty
really are what make the program,” Wright said. “It’s
the personal contact the students have with them that makes
it successful. Otherwise, it would just be a scholarship
program.

“I think
that what this program does is go back to the original idea
of education, which is the collegiality between students
and faculty,” she continued. “It goes so much
beyond the usual college experience to the personal connection.”

Patten and Ratner
can attest to that personal connection. The two are more
like old friends than student and mentor, with Ratner giving
Patten a “hard time” about wearing a Winnie the
Pooh tie to an interview and photography session.

“In a classroom
setting, it’s not often that students come in and say,
‘I really had a terrible date last night.’ But
in this environment, Ben comes because he chooses to, and
we have a friendship that means every subject is on the
table, like his ugly socks or my tie,” Patten said.
“He doesn’t have any trouble slamming me, which
is so great. I think it’s the most remarkable thing
about this: the friendship, the partnership, the erasure
of distinction. And, it’s fun.”