The students drawn from 75 schools in New York City will work under mentors in leading Ivy League university research labs and centres such as Cornell and Columbia, institutes of higher learning such as Memorial Sloan Kettering and NASA to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Math and Engineering) stream after their graduation.
The ambitious project of Harlem Children's Society (HCS) was founded by Indian-origin researcher and scholar Satyajit 'Sat' Bhattacharya from Kolkatta and has benefited more than 2500 local economically backward and minority children so far.
Of the current 250 students, about 40 per cent are African-Americans, 40 per cent are Hispanics and rest are immigrants from the lower strata of the society.
Of the total students chosen, 65 per cent are women.
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The students have been paid a stipend of upto USD 1500 a month for the programme and the benefit of the internship range from helping prevent school drop outs to developing a scientific inquest into the young minds, he said.
The broad spectrum of cutting-edge topics on which students have engaged in research so far include aerospace engineering, bio medicine and bio informatics, computer modelling, cybernetics, forensics, genetic engineering, green architecture, HIV/AIDS, nanotechnology, protein modelling, renewable energy among others.
The skill-based learning program consists of hands on experience in research labs and scientific centres for four to five days in a week, attending lectures by Nobel Laureates and scientists, presentation of research papers to develop aptitude in conducting independent research and higher learning.
The HCS flagship program was taken to Native American reservation in Hopi in Arizona where 15 students are chosen for skill-based development training. The students will be taught modern and scientific farming to help their parents besides basic healthcare training.
The program was launched in 2004 and over 200 students from the Reservation have been trained so far.