Extra $10,000 slated for minority program

A minority scholarship program to help graduate students pay off their undergraduate loans has an extra $10,000 to spend this year, Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, assistant to the provost and assistant to the president, said this week. McCoullum, who is in charge of the program at the University, said the Andrew W. Mellon Minority Undergraduate Scholar's program surprised her by giving the University a five-year grant of $350,000, even though she only requested $300,000. "When asking for grants, I have never in my life gotten more than I asked for," she said. "But I've always boasted that our program was the best in the country." McCoullum said she attributes the increase in the Mellon scholarship's budget to the overall success of the program. "Our graduates are at Colombia University, the University of California at Berkley, the University of Michigan and Harvard University," McCoullum said. The scholarships, which McCoullum said seek to fund those who are "underrepresented" in the academic field -- specifically black and Latino students -- help students who might not be otherwise able to finance graduate school. While undergraduates, the scholars receive up to $200 for textbooks. For each year the scholars are in graduate school, the foundation helps pays off undergraduate loans. McCoullum said the program is very small -- averaging six to seven students -- and that it concentrates on steering students into graduate and professional educations. "My job is to try and convince a subset of students to become Houston Bakers, or even Sheldon Hackneys," McCoullum said. "But they can do whatever they want to do, if it will lead to a Ph.D. program." McCoullum said she will be accepting applications for the Mellon program from qualifying sophomore students sometime next week. College junior Nicole Brittingham, one of seven Mellon scholars at the University, said she felt the program is very beneficial. "It's a lot more than classes and keeping up your GPA," Brittingham said yesterday. "We get to do a lot of mentoring with professors on campus, more than we would do otherwise, since they're so involved with the program. We also get the opportunity to do outside research." Brittingham said that even though being a Mellon scholar does not translate into "money in the hand," the foundation is very helpful financially. She added that although the financial help is a "real incentive" to apply for the Mellon program, there are other, less tangible, rewards. "Because it's a small group [the Mellon scholars and faculty] get to know each other better," she said. "Sometimes the professors that are involved in the program come to dinner with us. We really get to know the professors one on one. This gives you [an insight] of what it's like to go to grad school and be a professor."