Rice program encourages minority youth

Rice
program encourages minority youth
…………………………………………………………………

Rice is reaching
out to encourage minority children in Houston to pursue
careers in science and engineering. The Center for Excellence
and Equity in Education (CEEE) will host fourth- and fifth-graders
this Friday in conjunction with the Houston Independent
School District’s Say YES to a Youngster’s Future
program.

The Say YES program,
which is funded by Shell Oil Co., is a program designed
by the National Urban Coalition to help minority children
succeed in math, science and technology. CEEE Director Richard
Tapia, the Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied
Mathematics and the son of Mexican immigrants who was the
first in his family to attend college, will share his own
story with the children. Enrique Barrera, associate professor
of mechanical engineering and materials science, will highlight
the fun side of engineering with a science magic show.

The program will
start at 11:30 a.m. in McMurtry Auditorium, Anne and Charles
Duncan Hall, and will conclude with a campus tour.

CEEE, funded
by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Education
Outreach and Training Partnership for Advanced Computational
Infrastructure, seeks to promote greater participation of
underrepresented groups in the sciences and to encourage
academic excellence for all.