- Posted in All University
- Category: Campus News
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pa. – A cohort of 47 students from five HBCUs took part in a two-week summer immersion program hosted by Lincoln University. The Southern Initiative Algebra Project (SIAP) teaches mathematically-adept college students how to tutor math to middle school students, focused on lowest-scoring and underserved students. Targeting middle school-age students is important as it is the age and grades when math will either be embraced or rejected as students move up into higher mathematics classes.
Key staff members of the Southern Initiative Math Project: Dr. Doris Williams, social justice facilitator; Nancy Ledford Dennis, documentation and evaluation services; David J. Dennis Sr., executive director; and Bill Cromble, math facilitator.
The executive director of SIAP is David J. Dennis, Sr., a civil rights leader, retired attorney and former facilitator with The Algebra Project, a national project that teaches mathematics to low-income students and students of color to successfully achieve mathematic skills. SIAP goes one step further in that the student trainees become mentors, teaching social justice skills and the importance to stand up for their educational rights as students.
Bill Cromble, one of five SIAP facilitators was with Dennis and Moses during the initial stages of SIAP.
Dr. Doris Williams, social justice facilitator, leads a discussion on May 23.
“Quant itative literacy ensures that all children receive a quality education,” said Cromble. “When children do not learn how to read, it is not because they lack the human capacity. It is because we have not found the structured opportunities which those children need to achieve the targeted results. If we change the perspective of math literacy, we bring it into the circle of reading literacy.”
Another facilitator, Dr. Doris Williams, said the partnership with HBCUs was important.
“HBCUs have the greatest impact in raising leaders for our communities,” Williams said. “Many are working with students who give them more assistance and they may be equipped to pursue a STEM degree.”
The residential program is from May 21 to June 1 and includes students from Xavier University, Virginia State, Virginia Union University, Dillard University, and Lincoln. Students learn tutor skills and techniques in the morning session and participate in social justice exercises, presentations and discussions in the evening. At the end of the program, students will present their implementation plan for their communities and will receive year-long support from SIAP throughout the process.
Lincoln University student Adedapo Onabajo, a rising sophomore majoring in computer science and math, enjoys the program. “It’s very interactive. So easy yet so hard,” he said. The group was given two math problems and what they didn’t know was that it was the same problem. “One I finished in two minutes, the other took 10 minutes. What I learned is find what you need to do [first] in order to solve the problem.”