APS Awards Twenty-six Scholarships to Minority Undergrads

APS has awarded corporate- sponsored scholarships for the 1997-1998 academic year to 26 minority students who are majoring, or plan to major, in physics. Since its inception in 1980, the scholarship program has helped approximately 200 minority students pursue physics degrees. Each scholarship consists of $2,000, which may be renewed once, and which may be used for tuition, room and board.

"We are extremely impressed by these young scholars and look forward to watching them evolve into productive scientists as well as outstanding models for the next generation of minority scientists," said APS Executive Officer Judy Franz. "We are proud to have them take part in our APS scholarship program."

Out of 90 applicants, 15 new scholarships and 11 renewal applicants were selected. The Committee on Minorities in Physics noted that the quality of the applications was extremely high, so much so that the number of scholarships was increased from 24 to 26. The committee also noted that this year's batch of students is extremely well-rounded, excelling in sports, languages, community volunteer activities and music. Fifteen of the scholarship recipients have engaged in some form of research.

The APS scholarship program operates under the auspices of the APS Committee on Minorities, and is supported by funds allocated from the APS Campaign for Physics. Scholarships are awarded to African-American, Hispanic American or Native American students who are high school seniors and college freshmen or sophomores.

Roughly half are awarded to students enrolled in institutions with historically or predominantly Black, Hispanic, or Native American enrollment. After being selected, each scholar is matched with an available scholarship, as well as an accomplished physicist to act as a mentor.

David Anjelly is one of the newly selected scholarship recipients, and will be starting his freshman year at Yale University this fall. Despite being born partially blind, he has been involved in varsity track and field, varsity cross- country, math tutoring and community service programs. He was selected as one of 20 students to attend the Summer Research Institute at SUNY at Stony Brook in 1996, where he began an independent research project with the Department of Materials Science. Work that he did there earned him semifinalist status at the Westinghouse science competition. Anjelly has scientific publications pending, was an invited speaker at SUNY Stony Brook's student research symposium, and presented a poster paper at the 1997 APS March Meeting while still in high school.

Another scholarship recipient is Joanne Byars, who will be entering the University of Chicago this fall. Byars received perfect (800) scores on the verbal and math sections of SAT, and also on the writing, chemistry, literature, biology, and American history SAT subtests. In high school, she was the founder and president of the science honor society and president of Mu Alpha Theta as well as a volunteer in other community programs. In addition, she found time to engage in two independent study courses in physics at her high school and to take an elementary abstract algebra course at the University of South Florida.

Minority scholar Seth Guinals will begin his freshman year at MIT this fall. He is a graduate of Bronx High School of Science. He became involved in a Syracuse University summer research program that allowed high school students to participate in research with a faculty member. His project was to mathematically model the micromechanical behavior of cavities formed in composite materials, such as steel. In addition, Guinals was a member in the Bronx Science Center for Holocaust Studies, Unidad (a Hispanic culture club), the math team, and the Arista National Honor Society. He has also participated in Books for Bosnia, Hands on New York, and the Julliard School Music Advancement Program.

The other new scholars and their institutions are:

• Danon Price (Emory)
• Charlesly Joseph (Brown)
• Juan Nieto (Harvard)
• Robert Villareal (Southwest Texas State University)
• Mark Hill (MIT)
• Jean Morrow (Harvard)
• Edward Little (Cal Tech)
• Andrew Mercado (U.S. Air Force Academy)
• Elvis Dieguez (University of Miami)
• Taran Villoch (Ball State University)
• Michael Boss (Case Western University)
• Tasha Oswald (UC San Diego)

Students whose scholarships were renewed are:

• Gregory Baeza (Emory)
• Terance Barkus (Morehouse College)
• Martha-Elizabeth Baylor (Kenyon College)
• Carina Curto (Harvard)
• Adetokunbo Lukan (University of Toledo)
• Jaime Morales (University of Texas, El Paso)
• Lisa Morton (California State University, Chico)
• Melinda Nickelson (Bryn Mawr College)
• Ann Margaret Orthuber (UC Santa Cruz)
• Eugenio Ortiz (Princeton)
• Conan Viernes (University of Washington)