Media representatives are invited to cover the sixth annual North Carolina Alliance to Create Opportunity Through Education Day, funded by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University.
The event is the nation’s only program to recruit minorities to doctoral programs in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics that targets students at every educational level from middle school through graduate school. Separate workshops are held for students from all levels: middle school, high school, community college, undergraduate and graduate. The event is free to all North Carolina students.
It is funded for five years by a $10 million grant to the three universities from NSF and organized by retired Army Col. Larry E. Campbell, NC OPT-ED program manager in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education. (The first year was funded by a different grant.)
Speakers at an 8:30 a.m. welcome will be Valerie Ashby, Ph.D., a chemistry professor at UNC-Chapel Hill; Kenneth Murray, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at A&T State; Terri L. Lomax, Ph.D., graduate school dean at NC State; and A. James Hicks, Ph.D., of NSF. The Army’s 82nd Airborne All-American Chorus will perform during lunch, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
Last year Alliance Day was attended by 919 participants representing 16 colleges and universities, six community colleges, 32 high schools, and 16 middle schools from across North Carolina. Alliance Day also includes exhibits by NASA, the N.C. Solar Center and other science and technology organizations and colleges and universities.
NC OPT-Ed Web site: www.unc.edu/opt-ed
Note: Campbell can be reached at (919) 843-6903.
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589