George Washington Carver Research Program Celebrates 15th Year

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This is the largest class of Carver students to take part in the program at the University of Arkansas.

Forty-four undergraduate students from 14 colleges in 8 states arrived in Fayetteville Sunday, May 20, to attend the university’s George Washington Carver summer research program. This is the largest class of Carver students to take part in the program at the University of Arkansas. During the course of the program students will work and learn in university research labs and on research projects, be mentored by faculty and graduate students, learn about attending graduate school, and get to know what life is like on the Fayetteville campus. When they return to their home campuses in July, they will have gained valuable information about graduate school and their potential place in the larger community of their academic discipline.

The Carver program is in its 15th year as a recruitment initiative of the Graduate School and International Education designed to identify superior students of historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and Hispanic-serving institutions for selected undergraduate internship positions. In celebration of the 15 year milestone the students will not only visit Carver’s birthplace in Diamond MO, but will travel to Tuskegee AL and explore the Tuskegee Institute where Dr. Carver’s research brought him wide publicity and increasing renown.

Shani Farr, director of the program, explained, “The Carver program began as an opportunity to bring undergraduate students to the university, to Fayetteville, so they could experience a campus life that might be very different from their own; more importantly, life as a graduate student. The program has been highly successful, leading many former Carver students to graduate programs on our campus after they have completed their undergraduate degrees. The faculty and graduate students with whom they interact, as well as all the other students they meet from all over the nation, will allow them to grow in how they might view their future opportunities.”

The George Washington Carver Research Program offered internships in the following fields: business administration, communication, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science/engineering, drama, social work, electrical engineering and plant pathology.

A total of 106 students are participating in summer research experience for undergraduates programs on our campus. In all the REUs, students’ expenses are fully paid by federal grants awarded to our faculty, and each student receives a stipend. Other REU’s on our campus that welcomed students on Sunday include: assessment and sustainable management of ecosystem services, cell and molecular biology, computer science/engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, microelectronics-photonics, and space and planetary sciences.