Initiatives for Encouraging and Fostering Minorities and Under-represented Groups

My stance has always been to actively encourage participation from women and minorities who are underrepresented in my line of research. In the past, I have gone as far as contacting qualified students to help them submit graduate student fellowship applications to various existing agencies. This approach has worked well since it enabled me to use my expertise in proposal writing to help four minority students 1) realize the existence of such opportunities, and 2) submit suitable (award-winning) applications. By so doing, I have been able to recruit and support, through small student stipends, four minority students who could not have been able to afford the expenses of graduate education. I intend to pursue the same strategy of vigorously advertising on my homepage and on my bulletin board the different available opportunities for under-represented groups, and for providing assistance to those interested.