Writen by Ms. Renee Ahee
In the 2017 Oscar-nominated movie “Hidden Figures,” directed by Theodore Melfi, three brilliant NASA employees, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson, were the brains behind the historic launch of astronaut John Glenn into space. They remained largely unnoticed and unrecognized until the movie shed light on their critical contributions decades later.
A few years after the movie’s release, Lawrence Technological University received funding to begin its own Hidden Figures program in cooperation with the Detroit Public School District. This program encouraged girls to consider STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers.
This effort has evolved into the Marburger Hidden Figures ScholarsTM Program, open to female and male students. Beyond exposing students to STEM programs, LTU’s Hidden Figures Program provides full four-year scholarships to attend Lawrence Tech to study and design STEM-related careers for themselves. “This new program represents far more than an academic initiative,” Nelson said.
“While it is our responsibility to provide the foundation upon which students can build meaningful and successful college careers, it is our greater obligation as a university to evolve alongside them by creating an environment rich with opportunity, support, and purpose. As Dean, I am committed to ensuring that we do more than educate; we empower these extraordinary students with the tools, mentorship, and experiences necessary to truly transform their lives.”
Housed in CoAS, Nelson collaborates with all the other LTU colleges. He explained, “We recruit by visiting the local schools and talking to kids and teachers. I’m currently utilizing our Early Middle College and Dual Enrollment high school connections” to identify Hidden Figures ScholarsTM to enter the program. They’ll arrive on campus this summer to meet and work with our faculty.
This approach, he said, ensures a smooth transition from high school to college and into their careers. It also gets students “college-ready” before they come on campus. “We want them to feel like this is their community,” Nelson said.
There’s a unique character of Lawrence Tech, Nelson believes, that can accommodate today’s students’ needs. When he hears people say that students don’t fit into a particular college, “I believe that it’s not that students don’t fit in,” says Nelson. “It’s that the university is not ‘fitting in’ for them!”
At LTU, Hidden Figures ScholarsTM will conduct meaningful hands-on research working with faculty mentors. “A college education is for learning, expanding your mind, experiencing new things,” Nelson said. “Research is the human way to stay ahead of AI, discovering, innovating, and creating something new.
He continued, “These kids are still learning about themselves. This program is designed to help them discover what’s hidden in them. This is a new generation that is not going to be hidden anymore.”
The College of Arts and Sciences is proud to offer hands-on STEM Education programs for visiting high school groups. Explore our full list of fun biology, chemistry, and physics activities for your high school class!
The Michigan College/University Partnership program connects community college students with the state-of-the-art facilities and world-class faculty at LTU for a summer research project.
In Humanities, Social Sciences, and Communication, we explore what makes us uniquely human. Through ancient and modern texts, social norms, and communication, we uncover how these fields are essential to all careers and human endeavors.
In a world of programming, proofs, and unending figures and unfeeling facts, is there room for a touch of magic? Data drives discovery, innovation redefines intelligence, and when curiosity meets logic, mathematics can be miraculous.
Curiosity drives discovery in biology, chemistry, and physics, guiding us from molecular interactions to chemical reactions and the fundamental laws of nature. Explore what makes you curious.
