tufts blueprint fall 2011
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Good WorksYears later, the ripple effects of philanthropy are very real.A TUSDM resident assists with pediatric oral surgery in India. Story on page 3.
A message from the president:When Tufts College was founded nearly 160 years ago, the hill upon which its light was famously placed had no trees. Some had been chopped down for firewood by Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War. The rest went to the building of Medford clipper ships. What was known as Walnut Hill was bare.
Today from my window in Ballou Hall I can see elms and beeches and maples, which have turned a riot of orange, red, and yellow in my first autumn on campus.
It’s remarkable what a few well-placed seeds will do.
The same can be said for philanthropy. I have only been at Tufts a short time but already it is clear to me the impact that generosity has had on this university.
This issue of Blueprint seeks to convey the tangible difference that giving makes.
Take for example the story of Nicole Cherng, A10, which resonates with me as a research scientist. Nicole got her start as a researcher in biologist Sergei Mirkin’s lab. Her work had potential applications in the treatment of a neurological disor-der for which there currently is no cure. She was lead author on a resulting paper that was published in one of the most distinguished of scientific journals—a remarkable achievement for an undergraduate. Now she is going to medical school and eyes a career combining practice as a physician with research.
Nicole’s progress illustrates the widening circles of philanthropy’s impact. The generosity of the White family endowed the professorship Sergei Mirkin holds in biology, helping underwrite his teaching and research that is expanding our knowledge while contributing to the betterment of the human condition. Meantime, support from the Russell L. Carpenter Summer Fellowship Program and the Summer Scholars program—both made possible by the generosity of Tufts families and friends—helped Nicole gain the lab experience that has provided the foundation for her future in medicine. Her great works are only beginning.
There are many more stories like this at Tufts. This issue of Blueprint contains a few of them.
Thank you for all you do to make this university a place where achievements radi-ate. I look forward to working with you to add new chapters to Tufts’ remarkable story—and to plant some new seeds.
Best wishes, Tony Monaco
F O R T U F T S U N I V E R S I T Y
Chair, Board of TrusteesJames A. Stern, E72, A07P
PresidentAnthony P. Monaco, Ph.D.
Provost ad InterimPeggy Newell
Senior Vice President for University AdvancementBrian K. Lee
University AdvancementTufts University, 80 George Street, 200-3 Medford, MA 02155 USA 617.627.3200 • giving@tufts.edu
2
Fall 2011 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude
3
The first thing a visitor notices in
the waiting room of the SDM
Hospital Craniofacial Unit in
Dharwad, India, are all the chil-
dren waiting for treatment who
were born with cleft lip or palate.
Their deformities make it hard for them
to speak. Some babies are malnourished
because it is difficult for them to be fed.
“Many have come a long way from
remote rural areas for this chance at a
normal life,” says Dr. Marcin “Marty” Jarmoc, D07, DG11. As a resident in
oral and maxillofacial surgery at Tufts
University School of Dental Medicine
last year, he participated in an exchange
program at the SDM College of Dental
Sciences and Hospital with the support
of a travel fund established by a gener-
ous Tufts donor.
“On any given day there are 20 or
30 kids in the unit awaiting surgery
or post-operative treatment,” recalls
Jarmoc, now an assistant clinical profes-
sor at the School of Dental Medicine.
“Our role was to assist with the surger-
ies, and we would do two or three of
these a day.
“The difference that was made in
the children’s appearance, as well as in
their quality of life, was tremendous,”
he says. “The parents’ faces would light
up when you brought the babies from
the recovery room.”
A travel fund endowed in 2002 by
Dr. Roderick Lewin, D57, has enabled
Tufts residents in oral and maxillofa-
cial surgery like Dr. Jarmoc to assist
at the Indian hospital, gaining valu-
able surgical and diagnostic training.
Dr. Lewin’s generosity “lit the candle”
that inspired the exchange program,
says Dr. Maria Papageorge, D82,
DG86, DG89, A12P, professor and
chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery.
“Students are transformed by the
experience,” she says.
The SDM Hospital is the only one
in India that provides care for patients
with cleft lip and palate as well as large
tumors and temporomandibular joint
(TMJ) disorders. Upwards of 1,200
patients are treated every year in the
hospital’s 50-bed craniofacial unit.
“The pace of the work and the
advanced stages to which patients’
diseases have progressed—the result of
lack of money or access to care—are
issues a dentist would not experience in
the United States,” Jarmoc says.
He adds there are other differences,
too: “Because the power goes out as
often as once an hour, you have to rely
on the window in the operating room
for light while the back-up generator is
kicking in.”
Many of the cleft palate surger-
ies are paid for by Smile Train, an
international charity that funds such
operations for children in more than 80
countries around the world.
Through the exchange program,
residents in oral and maxillofacial
surgery from India also come to Tufts.
Tufts and SDM College have signed an
agreement to expand research collabo-
rations, and faculty from both institu-
tions are working together to develop
joint research ventures.
School of Dental Medicine residents return from hospital exchange program with insights, experience
Aboard the Smile Train
Martin Jarmoc, D07, DG11, gained surgical training in the Craniofacial Unit of SDM Hospital, Dharwad, India.
4
IN THE JET AGE, his hometown of Farmington, Conn., and the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince are not very far apart, observes Nick Preneta, MG11. “You can get there in a day,” he says. “But it seems like a completely different world.”
Preneta, who had worked in Ghana under a travel grant from the School of Medicine’s Global Health Initiative Fund, was in his final semester in the Master of Public Health Program when the earthquake hit Haiti last year. He left school to go to Port-au-Prince, where he helped with the distribution of water, food, and medical supplies.
Preneta was returning to Haiti, where he had spent three years before Tufts working with street children in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. “I went because of my close ties to the people of Haiti and my belief that my knowledge of the country and language would be an asset to relief work,” he says.
The first place he lived after the earthquake was next to a camp holding 1,600 people. Built on a soccer field, the camp had no sanitary facilities. Preneta joined members of a local soccer team to build latrines.
Now he is involved in a more wide-scale effort to improve sanitation in Haiti. As deputy director of a group called SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods), he works with communities to build composting toilets, converting waste for use in agri-culture and reforesting. An experimental garden SOIL has planted shows how compost may be used to grow corn, plantains, and beans. Some of the soccer players from the camp in Port-au-Prince have signed on as staff.
His previous Global Health Initiative experience in Africa has been useful to him, Preneta says. The Global Health Initiative at the School of Medicine has ben-efited during the Beyond Boundaries campaign from
Taking the initiative
for global health
“The effectiveness of any
[public health] project is
dependent on the ability
to learn and adapt to the
local context.”
Preneta in Haiti, at left, and at Tufts
News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Fall 2011
Fall 2011 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude
5Science is endless possibilities,”
says Nicole Cherng, A10, a stellar
researcher as an undergraduate
in Tufts biologist Sergei Mirkin’s
lab, now studying for her M.D. at
the University of Massachusetts
Medical School. “What’s exciting is
there’s so much to be found,” she says.
“There’s so much to be discovered still,
so much to be created, so much that
still doesn’t make sense.”
The aspiring doctor from Westford,
Mass., is an example of the ripple effect
of philanthropy. A series of scholar-
ship awards enabled her to work three
years in Professor Mirkin’s laboratory.
Meantime, Mirkin’s teaching and
research have been supported by the
endowed professorship he holds, the
White Family Chair in Biology. The
generosity of Tufts parents John and
Penny White, J97P, A03P, A05P, bene-
the philanthropic support of donors, including the Harris Berman and Ruth Nemzoff Family Foundation; retired professor James N. Hyde; the late professor Dr. Norman Stearns; and Irma Mann.
“During my time in Ghana I quickly learned that the effectiveness of any [public health] project is depen-dent on the ability to learn and adapt to the local con-text, and on a willingness to modify your project so as to better meet the needs of the population,” Preneta says. “Too often, as I have seen in Haiti, projects are conceived in agency offices or in foreign countries without the input of local stakeholders. Not surpris-ingly, these projects are often rife with problems and perform poorly on their original objectives.”
He said SOIL is trying to build a household sanita-tion program in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien. The organization’s compost site in Port-au-Prince is the country’s largest waste-treatment facility, currently
serving 13,000 to 14,000 people out of a population of nine million.
Sanitation remains a huge challenge in Haiti. “Before the earthquake, only 17 percent of the households in Haiti had access to improved sanitation,” Preneta says. “It was a disaster before the earthquake. The earthquake exacerbated the problem.” Cholera, trans-mitted through the consumption of sewage-tainted water and food that has not been washed properly, has claimed the lives of 6,000 people in Haiti since last October, he says.
SOIL hopes to develop a business model for decentral-ized waste-treatment facilities funded both by small fees paid by households and by the sale of resulting nutrient-rich compost. The hope is that the model then would be taken up by the private sector or the government and put in effect around the country. “Our goal is to work ourselves out of a job,” he says.
fited the Tufts researcher whose student
now paves her own path in science.
“As a physician I hope to con-
tribute not only to day-to-day patient
care, but also to the research world,”
Cherng says. As an undergraduate,
she was lead author on a paper pub-
lished in the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. The paper
described findings of research done in
the Mirkin lab with potential applica-
tions in the treatment of a particular
neurological disorder, spinocerebellar
ataxia, for which there currently is no
cure. “It is remarkable for an under-
graduate student to be lead author on
a paper in the Proceedings, one of the
most prestigious scientific journals in
the world,” Mirkin says. “I am sure she
will have a bright future—and it was
a privilege to see her start her journey
here at Tufts.”
A biology major, Cherng joined
Mirkin’s lab the summer after fresh-
“I hope to contribute not only to day-to-day patient care, but also
to the research world.”
Discovery and healing
Cherng outside the UMass Medical School
man year on an eight-week research
fellowship under the National Science
Foundation’s Research Experience for
Undergraduates program. The experi-
ence led her to add a major in biomedi-
cal engineering. She continued in the
lab with support from a Russell L.
Carpenter Summer Fellowship and as a
Summer Scholar. A grant to the Mirkin
Lab from the National Institutes of
Health also provided support.
“My three years in Sergei’s lab cul-
minated in my first authored publication
and my senior thesis,” she said. “I learned
the discipline of independent research.
The amount of responsibility Sergei
gave me was very high, overwhelming
at times, but it pushed me to a higher
level of achievement than I might other-
wise have achieved as an undergraduate.
He really pushed me to learn more.”
News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Fall 2011
6
ONE OUT OF 100 CHILDREN born today is affected by autism. And of the four mil-lion dogs surrendered to shelters every year, an estimated 2.2 million are put down.
What do these numbers have to do with each other? “Both are staggering,” says Dr. Nicholas Dodman, professor of clini-cal sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. “And both could see a significant drop because of new research.”
Over the past few years, Dodman has garnered attention for groundbreaking research into the genetic roots of canine obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD) and behavioral problems, work that is aiding treatment of conditions that too often have destroyed relationships between pets and owners and have cost countless dogs their lives.
Now, with funding made possible by two longtime friends of the Cummings School, links are being explored between his research on animals and potential appli-cations in the treatment of humans with similar psychiatric disorders.
Imagine the dog genome as a giant map of a dog’s entire genetic makeup. Dodman and his team have been able to pinpoint a region on chromosome seven that helps to confer susceptibility to OCD in Dobermans. “This research found a glitch, the proverbial needle in the haystack,” he says.
The discovery, published with University of Massachusetts and Broad Institute col-laborators in Molecular Psychiatry maga-zine, has far-reaching implications. “Dog studies like this one can teach us not only about locating the genetic underpinnings of OCD in humans, but also shed light on other conditions like Tourette’s syndrome and autism,” he says. “We have found a new way of looking at the genetics of psychiatric illness in people.”
The research has led to numerous collabo-rations for Dodman, including an imaging study with McLean Hospital and work with its OCD clinic, as well as a partnership with the Translational Genomics Research Institute and collaboration with research-ers at the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Human Genome Research Institute. “We have also discussed
patents that have arisen with Yale psy-chiatric researchers who have patented similar mechanisms of OCD relevant to treatment,” he says.
Dodman has a rescuing bent. At home he has two pets he saved from a shelter, a dog named Rusty and a deaf cat named Griswold. The cat often is startled by people walking up behind him, he says, but otherwise is “living the life of Riley.”
Of the hundreds of animals Dodman has treated over the years, it was a cocker spaniel who led to key philanthropic sup-port for his research. Mac Emory and Jan Corning, animal lovers and benefactors of the Cummings School, became convinced of the value of Dodman’s work after many visits to his clinic at the Cummings School for treatment of Emory’s beloved dog. Emorys and Corning’s gifts to the American Foundation created the grants that left Dodman “blinking with delight,” he says, and have since catapulted his research to new heights. The grants have also helped close the gaps between ani-mal and human conditions and convert tragic statistics into real-life cures.
Dodman’s research has led to numerous collaborations with leading psychiatric- and genetic-research organizations, including McLean Hospital, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Canine research holds promise for humans
Nicholas Dodman specializes in behavior issues with dogs.
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11
Fall 2011 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude
7
My country, right or wrong!”
John Quincy Adams could
never join in the popular
patriotic toast, he wrote
his father, John, in 1816.
“My toast would be, may
our country always be successful,
but whether successful or otherwise,
always right.”
Minister to Russia, negotiator
of the Treaty of Ghent that ended the
War of 1812, shaper of the Monroe
Doctrine as secretary of state, elo-
quent foe of slavery as a congressman,
and perhaps the only major figure
in American history who knew both
the Founding Fathers and Abraham
Lincoln, John Quincy Adams is
largely remembered today only as
the younger half of the nation’s first
father-son presidential duo.
Yet he was, in fact, one of America’s great-
est statesmen, whose vision of the young
republic and its place in the world is worth
recalling today, says Alan Henrikson, the
inaugural Lee E. Dirks Professor in Diplomatic
History at the Fletcher School. “For many
years I have taken my students to the Adams
National Historic Park in Quincy to visit the
Adams family’s ‘Old House,’” Henrikson says.
“I want to give them a sense of a place where
great ideas of American foreign policy have
been formed.”
The Adams connection with his course
is longstanding. Henrikson recalls years ago
inviting a latter-day member of the illustrious
family to speak to his students on the “Adams
Tradition in American Diplomacy.” Charles
Francis Adams IV was then head of Raytheon
and chairman of the Fletcher School’s Board of
Visitors. Adams IV described an occasion when
he and his father—Charles Francis Adams III,
secretary of the Navy in the Hoover adminis-
tration—were walking together down Tremont
Street in Boston. The older Adams was intend-
ing to go one way and the younger Adams
another. As they parted, the father somewhat
abruptly said to the son, “You have inherited a
reputation for integrity. Don’t lose it.” He then
turned and walked away.
“The importance of ‘integrity’ in diplo-
macy, as in interpersonal relations, can hardly
be overestimated,” says Henrikson. The
Adamses understood the concept of integrity
as being not just moral but also intellectual,
requiring not just rectitude, but consistency,
he says. “It is also a definition of character.
Countries, too, have character.”
In a speech on the Fourth of July in 1821
John Quincy Adams described the United
States as “the well-wisher to the freedom
and independence of all,” yet “the
champion and vindicator only of
her own.” America, he said, “goes
not abroad in search of monsters to
destroy.” This was in keeping with
what he saw as the anti-imperial
precedent of the first half-century of
the young republic.
Today, of course, “interna-
tional circumstances have changed
and so has American policy,” says
Henrikson. “The power of the
United States has greatly increased
and U.S. interests have greatly
expanded.” Whereas President
Thomas Jefferson intervened against
the Barbary Pirates to protect only
Americans and their interests, the
United Nations, of which the United
States was a founding member, has
affirmed a “responsibility to protect”—an obli-
gation to defend the citizens of other countries
when their own governments do not, as in
Libya under Qaddafi, Henrikson says.
How to find that larger “integrity” in the
foreign policy and conduct of the United States
over time? This is a challenge facing the histo-
rian who sets out to reconcile past and present,
Henrikson says.
The engagement with U.S. diplomatic
history is a long and enduring tradition at the
Fletcher School, says Henrikson. He notes the
great interest in the field—and in the diplo-
macy of John Quincy Adams in particular—
that is held by Lee Dirks, F57, the benefactor
who endowed the professorship he now holds.
“For Lee, as for many other Fletcher
graduates, the subject of U.S. diplomatic his-
tory, like American diplomacy itself, has been
a lifelong source of enjoyment as well as a mir-
ror for historical reflection,” Henrikson says.
“His generosity in establishing the Lee E. Dirks
Professorship in Diplomatic History will make
it possible to continue sharing his interest and
intellectual engagement with succeeding gen-
erations of Fletcher students.”
“The importance of ‘integrity’ in diplomacy,
as in interpersonal relations, can hardly be overestimated.
It is also a definition of character. Countries, too,
have character.” —Prof. Alan Henrikson
Fletcher’s Endowed Chair for Diplomatic History a Bully Pulpit for Teaching American Foreign Policy
8
News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Fall 2011
Cultivating the next generation of farmers. ” That’s the motto of the Friedman School’s New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, which trains new and immigrant farmers in the business of running a commercial farm while at the same time preserving the regional food system. “It’s an awesome
responsibility for these new farmers to be growing food for people, to nourish them,” says project manager Jennifer Hashley. “I think people really find joy in that, as much hard work as it is.”
The cause is winning the school new friends who may not have a previous connection to Friedman but share a passion for healthy food, a sustainable environment, and creating economic oppor-tunities for farmers. Friedman Fund donor Linda Lee says the farming project incorporates things she and her husband, Charles Lamb, care about, such as social action and open-space conser-vation, while offering the chance to witness a “veritable United Nations of farming styles.”
With increased demand for fresh food from local sources, New Entry is equipping the next generation of farmers with the skills and business savvy to succeed. Beginning farmers go through a farm business training course and then spend up to three years learning from expert staff members on leased property with full technical assistance. After their graduation, New Entry helps farmers locate land and connects them to direct marketing opportunities. In 2010 alone, more than 300 people participated in New Entry programs—from business planning and marketing assistance to livestock husbandry trainings, among others.
For graduates of the project, creating a successful agricultural business is a way to help the community that has welcomed them. “Our farmers want to make food affordable for people in the community, ” Hashley says. The farmers tell her: “Our fields are abundant and we want to share it with people. Why not make it easier for everyone to eat fresh, healthy food?”
THE IDEA FOR A GARDEN at the
Watson Elementary School in Fall River,
Mass., came about after a first-grade
girl said her family didn’t have enough
food at home.
The school’s principal saw an
opportunity to start a garden that
would be a teaching tool as well as
a community asset. Neighborhood
residents took an interest. Some would
stop by and offer tips in Portuguese on
growing tomatoes.
Now the garden at the city’s oldest
and smallest school produces tomatoes,
cucumbers, kale, beans, squash, and zuc-
chini. It also teaches valuable lessons.
“The children learn carrots grow in
the ground and potatoes aren’t French
fries,” says Marcia Picard, Fall River
school wellness coordinator.
The garden at the Watson School
was the first of 10 community gardens
now planted in the city as a part of
the Balance Project, a community-
wide initiative led by the Friedman
School as part of its Children in
Balance program. Children in Balance
works to combat and curb the child-
hood obesity epidemic in this country
through community-based research
interventions.
Over the past 30 years, obesity
rates in the United States have doubled
among adults and tripled among chil-
dren. Physical activity levels and fit-
ness have decreased, diets have shifted
Reinventing the family farm
School’s garden helps grow healthy habits
Left to right, farm-ers and volunteers
package produce for delivery to Boston-
area distribution centers.
Carson Underwood plants parsley at the Samuel Watson Elementary School.THE
HER
ALD
NEW
S
Fall 2011 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude
9
Seeding successFall River, Mass., was one of three cities nationwide chosen to replicate key components of Tufts’ noted Shape Up Somerville model. Shape Up was a citywide childhood obesity research study that was launched by Tufts Associate Professor Christina Economos, N96, holder of the New Balance Chair in Childhood Nutrition, and fellow researchers at the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention at the Friedman School.
As part of the Shape Up effort, Somerville schools increased the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products at school meals; local restaurants offered low-fat milk and smaller portion sizes; and the city added bike racks and repainted crosswalks to increase opportunities for physical activ-ity, such as walking and biking to school. As a result, Shape Up was the first study of its kind to prevent undesirable weight gain in children.
The success of Shape Up Somerville made international headlines and has been hailed by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative as a national model for childhood obesity prevention.
toward less healthy foods, and diseases
related to obesity and lack of fitness are
driving up health-care costs, threaten-
ing to reverse the enormous advances
in public health achieved during the last
century.
A $2.2 million grant from the
PepsiCo Foundation for the Balance
Project enabled the groundbreaking
“Shape Up Somerville” experiment to
be replicated in cities in Pennsylvania
and Florida as well as in Fall River.
So far, progress in Fall River has
been very encouraging, Picard says.
Training programs have been launched
to help community agencies support
good nutrition. Community cable
TV shows describe the benefits of
fresh local produce, and city schools
are taking part in a statewide project
encouraging children to walk to school
in supervised groups. These shifts
in community culture have played a
key role in bringing about important
behavior changes on an individual
level. For example, this summer 1,600
youngsters took a pledge to give up or
cut back on sweetened drinks; at one
school, 93 percent of the pupils took
the pledge.
“The community mindset has
changed,” says Picard. “Our aim is to
encourage children to serve as change
agents, to come home and have an
apple instead of a doughnut, and carry
a message about healthy living.”
New Entry Sustainable Farming is a comprehensive project that serves local communities as it pursues nutritional, economic, and civic goals.
School’s garden helps grow healthy habits
Carson Underwood plants parsley at the Samuel Watson Elementary School.
PHO
TOS
BY
KEL
VIN
MA
News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Fall 2011
10
WHEN DORIS YORK was growing up in Somerville in the 1920s, her father didn’t think girls should go to college. That didn’t stop her. She worked her way to a law degree from the old Portia Law School on Beacon Hill and went on to a career as a bank executive with the United States Trust Co. in Boston.
Along the way, she invested in tax-free municipal bonds. When she died in 2004 at 92, York, who never married, left an estate worth roughly $4 million. Nearly half she left to Tufts to endow a full-tuition scholarship for young women graduates of Somerville High, from which she graduated in 1929.
Now the first recipient of a Doris W. York Scholarship has gradu-ated from Tufts—and is helping a new generation of students pursue their own college dreams.
Naiara Souto, A10, counseled students at Somerville High as a member of the College Advising Corps at Tisch College. Now she has taken a job in diversity recruitment at Tufts’ Admissions Office.
Having emigrated herself from Brazil at the age of seven, Souto holds one issue especially close to her heart: her work with Latino students. “Many don’t want to move away from home or are kind
of scared that the environment is going to be too different from what they’re used to,” she says. “I get that completely, having gone from Brazil to Somerville High to Tufts. College is a whole different world.”
She recalled her own immigrant story. Breaking through the language barrier “by watching a lot of television,” she applied herself to her studies and managed to reach the top of her high school class. She and her siblings were the first in their family to aspire to college, and tuition promised to be a challenge. The York Scholarship paid her way through Tufts.
Now she is lending a hand to the students who have come after her. “When I went back to Somerville High to advise, it was satis-fying to have kids just plop down and talk to me about their frustrations and to give them a professional outlet,” she said.
“Not everyone at Somerville is on the college path—and the college path, once you get on it, isn’t always the easiest. The members of the class I just worked with are headed for their freshman year at college, and I tried my best to prepare them.
“If they have any issues, they have my phone number!”
Finding a wayThe York Scholarship gives students at Somerville High a path to Tufts
Naiara Souto at Somerville High
Fall 2011 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude
week BEST program on campus this
past summer.
The aim is to attract and retain
members of populations underrep-
resented at the school, focusing on
first-generation college-goers with
high financial need, says Travis Brown,
project manager for the Center for
STEM Diversity. Support for the
BEST program comes from the Dean’s
Discretionary Fund at the School of
Engineering—a beneficiary of the
Beyond Boundaries campaign.
When Corey Mason, E14, from
rural West Virginia, learned he would
receive an ROTC scholarship to study
engineering anywhere he wanted, he
wondered what may lie beyond the
“cornfields, cows, and mountains” of
Appalachia. “Tufts seemed like a good
reach for me,” he says.
Yet he wondered if finishing at the
top of his high school AP calculus class
would be enough. “I was sincerely wor-
ried about how well the math program
at my high school had actually pre-
pared me,” he said.
Mason was in the inaugural BEST
group. After what he called the hard-
est—and best—six weeks of his life, he
walked onto campus in September with
an ace in his pocket. “I went in feeling
a step ahead,” he says. “I don’t think
anyone else came in quite as prepared
as the BEST Scholars.”
Corey Mason Aliandro Brathwaite
Growing up next to the elevated
railway in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
Aliandro Brathwaite, E14, developed an early fascination
with engineering. “I’d always
lived next to a subway line, and
I was interested in how it was built,
how the very heavy trains stay on this
elevated track,” he says.
Now the kid who grew up next
to the El is pursuing his engineering
dream at Tufts. He was among eight
students in the Class of 2014 who
enrolled prior to their first semester in
a six-week summer bridge program,
created to make engineering a viable
option for talented students from
diverse backgrounds who would benefit
from extra academic preparation. They
took two classes for credit, participated
in academic and college life work-
shops, and gained an edge in their math
studies.
Six of the eight students went on to
make Dean’s List in their first year.
What is called the BEST (Bridge
to Engineering Success at Tufts) pro-
gram was piloted by the School of
Engineering and the Center for STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics) Diversity, in conjunc-
tion with the Office of Undergraduate
Admissions. A second group of incom-
ing freshmen participated in the six-
Crossing bridgesFor these undergraduates at the School of Engineering, terms like “first-generation,” “high financial need,” and “underrepresented” describe their circumstances, not their potential.
University Advancement 80 George Street, Suite 200-3, Medford, MA 02155
NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PA I D BOSTON, MA PERMIT NO. 1161
We couldn’t have done it without you.Tufts has successfully completed the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the university’s history raising more than $1.2 billion.
Your support helped make it possible.
We’d like to say thanks. Please visit us online, play the video, and see all that 140,000 generous donors have accomplish together!ed
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