IIT's 1996 Summer Bridge Program Gets Culture
An IIT Bridge Student Reflects on National AMP Conference in Florida

Chicago AMP Partnership News Letter, Volume ll, Issue l, February 1997

Article contributed by Shaheerah Fateen edited by Prof. Johnson

Web format @ by Prof. P. Johnson

Bridge Program Gets Culture

Part of IIT's seven-week summer Bridge program included the participants sharing aspects of their neighborhoods and cultures.

The participants, ChAMP scholar-mentors and teaching assistants, Admission Office and Multicultural Programs staff, and Bridge program instructors and coordinators boarded a bus at the 31st street corner of IIT's main campus on two separate mornings to tour African American and Latino communities.

The Latino trip featured a walking tour of the Pilsen area graffiti murals led by Latino artist and historian, Carlos Cortez.

Highlights included St. Vidas Church and Benito Juarez High School and ended with a Mexican lunch at Nuevo Leon on l8th Street. The African American Tour, led by Arvis Averette, included stops at the DuSable Museum, Oakwoods Cemetery where Harold Washington and Jesse Owens are buried, the home of Rev. Jessie L. Jackson and the former home of "The Greatest",a.k.a., Mohammed All.

The tour also included a stop at several southside murals, including one on 71st Street, that IIT's Bridge program teaching assistant and mentor, Jackie Hubbard helped to design while in high school.

An IIT Bridge Student Reflects on National AMP Conference in Florida

The Illinois Institute of Technology's ChAMP Undergraduate Research program offers participants the opportunity to apply concepts in their related fields of math, science, engineering, and technology by sponsoring independent research projects and encouraging them to present the results of their research at local and national conferences.

In fact, a fellow student of mine, Diego Carlton, a senior in Electrical and Computer Engineering, won a prize at the National AMP conference in California last year.

In July, I was selected by Dr. Peter Johnson, Director of the ChAMP at IIT, to represent IIT in the 4th Annual Alliance for Minority Participation Student Research Conference. The conference was set at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida..

My project was entitled"Competition Between Suspended and Attached Biomass in Biological Reactors." This project stems from an independent research course I had been working on for the past year and deals with one of several processes in which raw sewage is eliminated in the treatment of wastewater.

There were many interesting student presentations at the conference. I also found that it provided a wonderful opportunity for networking with other students, academics, and professionals. We talked about scholarships, fellowships, graduate school, and employment opportunities.

I realize that being an AMP participant has helped me develop personal and professional skills important to my undergraduate success and long term career goals.

The trip provided many "firsts" for me. The flight to Florida was the my first airplane trip (I missed the flight despite Professor Johnson's detailed instructions

Florida was the furthest distance I have traveled from the Chicago area. I met Dr. Luther Williams and got my picture taken with Drs. Calvert and McHenry of the AMP-NSF. On the wild side, a number of us took a swamp tour on a free afternoon and fed the alligators that approached our boat.