Penn, Temple advocate grad school for low-income students

Penn and Temple University joined forces this weekend to encourage first-generation and low-income undergraduates to pursue graduate degrees. Approximately 80 undergraduate students from across the country attended the two-day conference, which featured a series of workshops at Temple and a graduate school preparation session at Penn. The program was sponsored by the Ronald McNair Scholars Program, which supports institutions that provide selected first-generation and low-income students with additional academic opportunities. The University currently does not maintain a McNair Scholars Program, but Assistant Vice Provost for Graduate Education Karen Lawrence said Penn wanted to help students see "the strengths of the city of Philadelphia." "Scholarship crosses institutional boundaries," Lawrence said. "I think it's a breakthrough that Penn and Temple worked together on this. We don't often do things together, and it's great for students to see the place we live and do research in." Lawrence said that although a large portion of the scholars visiting Penn's campus would inevitably attend other graduate schools, she hoped the conference would generate some applications to University. The conference tackled topics such as the purpose of graduate education, submitting successful graduate applications, funding a graduate education, Graduate Record Exam preparation and the place of people of color and women in academia. Noted faculty from both universities led discussions with the undergraduates, answering their questions and attempting to quell their fears about the academic job market. "When I went to graduate school, I didn't think it was possible to secure a job as part of the collegiate faculty," Vice Provost for Graduate Education Janice Madden said. "But a lot has changed for minorities and women with doctoral degrees." "Every single person here has something to give to the world of academia," she added. Temple University Associate Professor of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology in Education Jayminn Sanford urged participants toE"keep fortified" against people who might question their legitimacy in their field, adding that "you should choose your battles wisely -- if you don't, you will get a stroke." But faculty members remained optimistic about the discrimination McNair Scholars might endure due to their race or sex. Penn English Professor Mark Chiang told how he and his fellow doctoral students at the University of California at Berkeley began the only ethnic studies program in the country because they were interested in learning more about their history. "Keep in mind as you struggle through graduate school, and I know it is a struggle, that you are in demand," Chiang told conference participants. "The mostEexciting academic work in the future will be from people who are marginalized. The old paradigms will be reworked." And Temple Communication Science Professor Aquiles Iglesias -- the only Latino speech pathology department chairperson in the country and the creator of the first bilingual speech pathology program in the United States -- said he enjoyed giving his knowledge and research back to the scientific community, adding that he "loved the academy." Penn School of Arts and Sciences graduate student Akil Khalfani, who helped Madden's office plan the event, said he thought participants "got exactly the message" he hoped the conference would deliver -- the necessities and subsequent rewards of preparing for and attending graduate school. And Lawrence added that the practical information of how to prepare a graduate school application coupled with individual faculty members' experiences provided McNair Scholars with a solid background for their future academic careers. "We hope we provided [participants] with sufficient support," she said.