By Jennifer Brzowski
The Daily Cougar

Having high goals is admirable; achieving them is applaudable. In September, the Houston-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation received its due applause in the form of a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The Houston program, one part of a national effort to increase the number of minorities with degrees in science, mathematics, technology and engineering, is a cooperative effort between the Houston Independent School District and eight universities and colleges -- UH, UH-Victoria, Texas Southern University, Texas State University-San Marcos, UH-Downtown, the Houston Community College System, the San Jacinto Community College District and Rice.

"You want to take (minority) students and encourage them to get Ph.D.s and become professors at universities and become role models at schools, letting students know that they can achieve their dreams in those areas," said John Bear, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Bear said the alliance nearly doubled its number of graduates in the last five years -- to about 800.

Joshua Udoetuk was one student who helped increase that number. He was involved in H-LSAMP before he graduated from UH in May and went on to medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.

Udoetuk said his experiences in H-LSAMP -- including working as a teaching assistant for a general chemistry course and traveling across Texas to present research -- helped him achieve his academic and professional goals.

"The programs supported by H-LSAMP create an atmosphere that takes average students and turns them into A students," Udoetuk said.

One such program is the Scholar Enrichment Program at UH. Its director, Christopher Miller, was involved in H-LSAMP as an undergraduate.

"The SEP is basically designed to offer academic support through supplemental instructional workshops that are led by undergraduate students ... the whole basis of it is cooperative work," Miller said. "It definitely helped me with finishing my own undergraduate degree.

"One thing that the program does is, it definitely gives you a core group of people who become your close friends, who have the same focus and the same drive," he said. "So, it’s basically motivating you to obtain your degree."

Biology senior Jose Figueroa echoed that sentiment.

"It is an amazing and comforting feeling to have people you can count on for any help, especially for an entering freshman," Figueroa said.

Bobby Wilson, the provost at TSU, said that cooperation is the result of the relationship between the H-LSAMP universities.

"We really have a true type of interactive relationship. It’s not just, ‘You have your money and I have my money, and you do your thing and I do my thing,’" Wilson said. "I think that’s really what makes us so strong."

The $5 million grant will allow H-LSAMP to build on that strength.

"I think you’re probably going to see a large increase for us in Houston because of the number of Hispanic students coming in," Bear said. "Then, we will probably try to make sure that we bring in students who have the ability to go on to be professionals and go to graduate school."