Student Scholars Engage in High-Level Research
Archived article from Apr 26, 2004
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Chopra, a Douglass Scholar and a senior, has worked for three years on research projects with Wise Young, director of the Spinal Cord Injury Project at Rutgers, exploring the effects of nicotine, female hormones and aceteminophen on spinal cord injuries. Project SUPER participants have done research at the Primate Reserve at the Philadelphia Zoo. They have gone on archeological digs in Kenya and shadowed genetic counselors at St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick.
Project SUPER is part of the Douglass Project for Rutgers Women in Math, Science, and Engineering, created in 1986 to encourage women to enter professions in which they are traditionally underrepresented. The project brings high school girls to the Douglass campus during the summer to study the sciences. It also places 50-100 Rutgers students per year at the Lord Stirling School in New Brunswick to work with elementary school students on science projects and field trips. Not including elementary level students, the Douglass Project serves about 900 students per year. It has received significant funding from private firms and philanthropic organizations and has won many awards.
Chopra lives with other math, science, engineering and computer majors at the Bunting-Cobb residence hall at Douglass, where graduate students dispense experience and wisdom in late-night chats. The first of its kind in the country, Bunting-Cobb is "a way to route women who are interested in science into the Douglass community," Chopra said. "If it weren't there, I'd have to wander around campus and look for these women myself." Chopra's father grew up in India, and her mother is from Kenya. She hopes to get a master's degree in public health and become the first woman in her extended family to become a medical doctor.
The Douglass Project is a model for encouraging young women like Chopra to pursue careers in science, technology, math and engineering, said Carmen Twillie Ambar, dean of Douglass College. “Our students are on the fast track by virtue of the graduate level work that they do,” Ambar said.
Jacqueline D. Heads, director for undergraduate programs at the Douglass Project, said women in programs like Project SUPER are “not aware of a glass ceiling" in math, engineering and the sciences. "They're looking at the opportunities, not the difficulties, of working in these fields. We don't encourage them to compete with their male counterparts. Rather, we encourage them to compete with themselves and to strive for nothing less than excellence. "
-By Patricia Lamiell
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