Before he enrolled in the University’s Upward Bound program last summer, Derek McNeil’s knowledge of chemistry was “the bare minimum.”
“I knew the periodic table and the basics you learn about chemistry,” says McNeil, a senior at Vanguard Collegiate High School in Rochester. “But with this program, everything came together. Now, I feel like a real scientist.”
McNeil is one of a record 140 high school students from the Rochester City School District who took part in Upward Bound’s six-week summer program. Upward Bound is an academic and college preparatory program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Its purpose is to help students develop the skills and motivation necessary to complete high school, become active community members, and succeed in college.
Administered by the David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity in Arts, Science and Engineering, the University’s Upward Bound program was created in 2007. The program is part of a larger initiative to engage underrepresented, first-generation, and economically challenged high schoolers throughout the Greater Rochester Area in pursuing education in college.
On Thursday, the 2016 summer participants made poster and oral presentations in Hubbell Auditorium at the program’s annual academic showcase.
All Upward Bound students perform research, but McNeil was one of just six who worked with faculty in University labs. His project was titled “Straightforward Syntheses of Fe (III) Chelate Complexes and their X-Ray Crystal Structures.” His job was to synthesize and determine the crystal structures of new iron complexes.
He did it so well that his mentor, assistant chemistry professor Michael Neidig, told McNeil that his work may be published in a research journal.
“That is amazing,” McNeil says. “That makes me feel so good.”
The 17-year-old says taking the program the past two summers has pointed him on a career path.
“This is now what I want to do with my life,” he says. “Upward Bound offers inner-city students an opportunity they otherwise wouldn’t find. It’s amazing to mix and experiment and do research.”
Lavasha Perez, a junior at Wilson Magnet High, is taking the Upward Bound program for a third consecutive summer and also performed research in Neidig’s lab. Her project was called “Synthesis of Iron (II) Complexes Bearing a Nitrogen-Based Ligand.” She studied how iron behaves in reactions which create chemical bonds between two carbon atoms to produce more complex molecules.
“I recommend this program 100 percent,” Perez says. “I used to be really shy. This program made me more talkative. I can talk to anyone I don’t know.”
Neidig says chemistry may be complex, but the goal of his Upward Bound classes is quite simple.
“It’s about making science cool for these kids,” he says. “If you’re having fun and doing research on a daily basis, you learn. And you often find you love it.”
It wasn’t all about science Thursday morning. Student presentations covered topics such as cyberbullying, safe sex, teen suicide prevention, climate change and stopping inner-city violence.
