Program Helps Minorities Thrive at Virginia Teach

BLACKSBURG, Va., Jan. 31, 2002 -- A mentoring and support program for minority students at Virginia Tech has been so successful that it has helped the university become a ranking institution nationally in terms of minority graduates in the agricultural sciences.

Randolph L. Grayson, a professor, founder, and co-director of the university's Minority Academic Opportunities Program, or MAOP for short, said participants in the program complete their academic careers at a greater rate than can be claimed by most other institutions.

"When you look at the success of this program, you find that not another program in the United States has been so successful," he said. "I don't know of any institution in the country that graduates 93 percent of its minority undergraduates."

Grayson said the graduation and retention rate of the MAOP participants exceeds that of the all undergraduates at Virginia Tech, and is nearly double that of minorities at the university who are not involved in the program. Since 1993, 93 percent of the program's 177 participants have graduated or are still in the program.

Larry D. Moore, Virginia Tech professor and MAOP co-director, credits the program with helping the university earn an impressive ranking of No. 3 nationally in awarding master's degrees in agriculture to African-Americans, and No. 8 nationally in awarding master's degrees to all minority groups. The rankings were released last year by the publication Black Issues in Higher Education.

The publication ranked other measures of the university's success, as well. Virginia Tech jumped 10 places to the No. 18 spot among all U.S. colleges and universities in awarding bachelor degrees in agriculture to all minority groups. It moved to the No. 15 position for awarding bachelor's degrees in agriculture to African-Americans. The university was not ranked in this measure previously.

MAOP helps minority students not only earn bachelor's degrees, it also helps them develop the academic credibility to be sought after by university graduate programs. It has three major academic parts: an undergraduate scholars program, a summer research intern program, and a graduate scholars program.

"We also have a fourth leg, and that's a mentoring program," Grayson said. "Every incoming MAOP freshman is assigned an older undergraduate or a graduate student as a mentor, someone who can give them guidance and is knowledgeable about the speed bumps many students hit outside the classroom."

For minorities, many of those speed bumps have at their root sociological and financial factors. The pressures of being born a minority or a female, paying for schooling, family expenses and obligations, unstable family lives caused largely by socio-ecomomic problems, and the like cause distractions that can deflect even the most diligent student from academic success. MAOP is designed to help minimize those distractions through scholarships, mentoring, and creating bonds among the participants. It is a multicultural, multiracial program with participants coming from all races and ethnic groups.

"When students become MAOP scholars they agree to participant in all official MAOP functions and to be active in MANRRS," Grayson said, referring the local chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences. "We meet regularly, and this allows the students to become a part of the MAOP family and to recognize everyone who's a member of the family. That translates into informal support for one another, and that's a very important element of the program."

Another reason for the success of students in MAOP is the quality of people accepted into the program. All of the participants have shown potential or achieved academic excellence on the high school level before being selected for the program. Grayson stated that grade point averages are neither the first nor the last things evaluated when considering a student for participation.

"We attempt to evaluate a student's capabilities in all aspects," he said. "We try to cut through all those things that distract people, cut through the stereotypes and evaluate the individual based on present performance and potential. We try to make the evaluation of the whole person. We want to move them from where they are to where they want to be."

Once in the program, participants understand the standards they are expected to meet, Grayson said. "If they understand what is expected of them, and if you set standards with a challenging level of performance, most students will give you that or better," he said.

In addition to the Virginia Tech undergraduate scholars program, MAOP has also helped 188 undergraduates from 48 colleges and universities in a 10-week summer internship program since 1993. Ninety-eight percent of those participants completed their undergraduate programs, and about 70 percent have or are in the process of earning graduate degrees.

MAOP's program for Virginia Tech graduate students has funded 70 students since 1995. The program enjoys an impressive 90-percent graduation/retention rate.

Grayson stated that the graduate leg of MAOP represents the ultimate goal of the program, which is the obtaining of advanced degrees by minorities and females. The number of people with advanced degrees, especially in the sciences, technology, architecture, business, and some related areas are very low. He said that increasing the number of people with masters, doctorates, and professional degrees will contribute to the breaking of "glass ceilings" found throughout our society.

This will allow women, minorities, and some white students who are under served to move into the "cutting edge" areas of science and technology to address a very real need in our nation.

Grayson stated that the achievements of the MAOP program would have been more difficult to reach without the talents and commitments of people like Dr. Larry Moore, Associate Provost Patricia Hyer, Mr. Dixon Hanna, Dr. Lanny Cross, Dr. Barry Simmons, Dr. Martha Reifsnider, Office Manager Peni Ratcliffe, and other dedicated people. The key component is the partnership between the deans of six of the eight colleges that compose the university and their dedicated and highly committed faculty. It is these faculty members whose daily commitment helps these talented students succeed because they are advisers, teachers, mentors, and role models.

The six colleges are the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Natural Resources, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Human Resources and Education, the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.