CfAO celebrates partnership with Hartnell College
By Tim Stephens
An educational partnership between the Center for Adaptive
Optics (CfAO) at UCSC and Hartnell College in Salinas is bringing
advanced astronomy courses to Hartnell students and encouraging
underrepresented students to pursue degrees in science and engineering.
CfAO's
Claire Max with Hartnell College president Edward Valeau
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In a ceremony on May 13 at UCSC, Hartnell president Edward
Valeau presented the President's Partnership of Excellence Award
to CfAO director Claire Max. Hartnell's collaboration with the
CfAO is funded by the NASA Curriculum Improvement Partnership
Award (CIPA) program. When the NASA-CIPA program evaluated its
grant recipients recently, Hartnell was the top performing institution
and received a perfect score, Valeau said.
Last summer, CfAO researchers worked with Hartnell astronomy
instructor Andrew Newton to offer a summer short course in astronomy
called "The Distant Universe." It was the most advanced
astronomy course ever taught at Hartnell and allowed students
to interact directly with researchers. The course will be offered
again this summer.
"Our goal is to excite the students and give them a sense
of where to go with that excitement," said CfAO postdoctoral
researcher Anne Metevier, who was the lead teacher.
Two students who took the course last summer have been accepted
into the CfAO's internship program this summer. This is an impressive
achievement, as more than 70 students from across the country
applied for just 9 internship openings, Metevier said.
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