LMU is working to improve the number of minorities studying science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) in college through SECOP for minority high school students.
SECOP is a two-week residential pre-college summer enrichment program with an emphasis on science and pre-engineering. SECOP will take place between July 6-July 18, 2008. Students take classes taught by professors and work with LMU science and engineering undergraduate students on group projects. This summer, SECOP 2008, has 31 students from 16 different high schools around Los Angeles including Westchester High School. City Honors High School, Hawthorne Math and Science Academy, and Lenox High School. This is the largest group that has attended SECOP since its inception in 2001.
The high school students take courses taught by LMU professors and are mentored by LMU science and engineering undergraduates. During the two-weeks students learn about the myriad of careers available to them if they study STEM fields in college. They have courses during the program that model the same style of projects that freshmen in college perform including building a robot using Legos Mindworks, building a mousetrap car, using Auto CAD programming to design an object and then using a rapid prototyping machine to build their designed object. Students eat in the Lair cafeteria and sleep in LMU dormitories that help provide them with a peek into what their potential college experience will be like in the near future.
Loyola Marymount University is very proud to have been able to provide 185 minority high school students from 60 different high schools in the Greater Los Angeles Area, an opportunity to attend a pre-science and engineering summer camp for two weeks on our Westchester Campus. Funding from the California Educational Facilities Authority’s Academic Assistance Grant Program, Medtronic Corporation, Crail Johnson Foundation and Honda Foundation have enabled LMU to keep SECOP going for the past eight years. We have outstanding results from SECOP from the students who have graduated high school; 98% are attending college and 2% are in the military. Of the 98% who are currently in college, 65% have selected a STEM field.
