6
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2006
Bus takes science on the road
BY NICOLE DUNCAN
STAFF WRITER
A hefty gift from the N.C.
General Assembly during the past
budget cycle has helped ensure the
fate of DESTINY.
UNC’s DESTINY Traveling
Science Learning Program, which
brings science education oppor
tunities to state high schools,
received $500,000 from the state
legislature.
This week and during the semes
ter, DESTINY science education
specialists are traveling across the
state in two buses Destiny and
Discovery —with state-of-the-art
lab equipment for students to gain
firsthand experience.
The program was created in 2000
and has grown to offer 13 different
labs that concentrate on a variety of
current issues in science such as evo
lution, genetics and forensics.
DESTINY also focuses some of
its labs on topics covered in the
End-of-Course Tests.
“We’re constantly trying to
upgrade,” said Lisa Pierce, a
DESTINY science education spe
cialist who travels around the state
in the DESTINY buses.
One of the buses visited Avery
County High School in western
North Carolina on Tuesday to per
form the “From Finches to Fishes”
N.C. Hillel joins entrepreneurial push
BY ELIZABETH BEAVERS
STAFF WRITER
Future CEOs now can pick
between two CEIs.
N.C. Hillel an on-campus
Jewish organization recently cre
ated a pilot program known as the
Campus Entrepreneurs Institute,
offering another option in addition
to the already existing Carolina
Entrepreneurial Initiative.
John Kasarda, director of the
Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative,
said the purpose of the program—
which originated in 2003 is to
promote entrepreneurship across
campus.
The original CEI offers first-year
seminars that relate entrepreneur
ship to fields such as biology, reli
gion and art. The program also
includes the Carolina Challenge,
a student-led competition that
awards $50,000 to the student or
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lab with Kay Campany’s and Pam
Scarborough’s biology classes.
Campany is a veteran of the
DESTINY labs this is her third
year in the program.
“Each one I keep saying, ‘this is
the best one,’ and I’ve got to quit
saying that because they’re all just
fantastic,” she said.
Teachers aren’t the only ones
excited when the DESTINY bus
arrives. Campany said class atten
dance is 100 percent on DESTINY
days.
Pierce said that it takes a lot to
get students interested in science,
but that DESTINY is effective.
“They’re high-school kids. They’d
rather talk about their prom dates
than DNA,” said Pierce, who was a
biology teacher before joining the
program.
Teachers and DESTINY officials
said that working with sophisticat
ed lab equipment opens students’
eyes to science careers.
“I’ve heard a lot of stories about
students who didn’t even consider
science as a career,” said Claire
Bury, public relations manager for
DESTINY. “And now just to have
an opportunity to take place in a
wet lab in the bus, it really changes
their minds.”
Without DESTINY’S help, many
high schools in North Carolina could
team that develops the best com
mercial or social venture.
Kasarda said the Princeton
Review and Forbes.com consis
tently rank the program as one of
the best in the country.
The program focuses on non
business majors.
He estimated that the program
involves 400 to 500 students,
including 120 participants in the
entrepreneurial minor.
The new minor, which was
established last year, enrolls stu
dents of varying majors.
N.C. Hillel’s program, bearing
the same acronym, takes a less for
mal approach to student involve
ment with entrepreneurship.
The pilot program is part of a
nationwide effort led by Hillel: The
Foundation for Jewish Campus
Life.
Valerie Kolko, N.C. Hillel’s direc
ilk iis
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COURTESY OF NANCY DONALDSON
Lee County High School students engage in a scientific experiment
in November while aboard a UNC DESTINY science learning bus.
not afford to perform these labs.
“A lot of the schools have out
dated textbooks and they’re trying
to teach, but they don’t have the
resources,” Pierce said.
The program is funded by orga
nizations such as GlaxoSmithKline,
and NASA, as well as the state.
The funding from the N.C. leg
islature will ensure that DESTINY
can continue to offer labs to classes
tor of statewide programs, said that
the purpose of this student-driven
program is to empower individual
students to develop their own ini
tiatives on campus through peer
to-peer engagement.
Kolko said 10 students are
implementing projects through
the program.
They must find 60 students not
involved with Hillel to participate
in their programs.
Sophomore Andrew Coonin is
one of the students involved in N.C.
Hillel’s CEI.
He said he wants to complete a
Jewish theater project, which will
showcase plays with underlying
Jewish themes.
He said the institute is differ
ent from other Hillel programs
because it gives students a chance
to explore Judaism without attend
ing religious services.
News
such as Campany’s.
“That speaks a lot for our state
that they value teachers and stu
dents,” Campany said.
The next stop for the DESTINY
buses is Ashe County High School
today, followed by Wilkes Central
High School on Thursday.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
Coonin said he believes N.C.
Hillel’s CEI offers a relationship
based opportunity that the other
CEI might not provide.
“It’s not so much about personal
entrepreneurship but community
entrepreneurship.”
Kolko said that N.C. Hillel offi
cials were unaware of the other CEI
and that N.C. Hillel is “not looking
to step on anyone’s toes.”
She said she wants to learn from
the other program.
Kasarda said he isn’t looking at
N.C. Hillel’s CEI as competition
either.
He said the new program indi
cates a growing interest in entre
preneurship across UNC’s campus
which is exactly what his CEI
wants to accomplish.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
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www.unc.edu/cei • cei@unc.edu
Education in
need of reforms,
Spellings says
Affordability is next big challenge
BY JEFF SOPLOP
STAFF WRITER
U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings advocated sig
nificant reforms for the U.S. higher
education system Tuesday at the
National Press Club in Washington,
D.C.
Her speech was broadcast and
webcast at 1 p.m. on CSPAN and
the U.S. Department of Education’s
Web site.
Spellings spoke about the find
ings of the Commission on the
Future of Higher Education, which
she formed in 2005 to develop a
national plan for reforming post
secondary education.
Throughout the past year, the
commission has interviewed stu
dents, administrators and politi
cians about many facets of higher
education.
The commission’s report noted
that although the United States
enjoys great success in higher edu
cation, many other countries fol
lowed suit and now educate more
of their citizens to more advanced
levels.
The report states, “We remained
so far ahead of our competitors for
so long, however, that we began to
take our postsecondary superior
ity for granted. The results of this
inattention, though little known
to many of our fellow citizens, are
sobering.”
Spellings observed that while
higher education in the United
States appears fine, considerable
education problems must be dis
cussed.
These issues include rapid rises
in tuition prices, a poor record of
college students graduating on
time and overwhelming levels of
debt accumulated by students.
Both the report and Spellings
emphasized that reforming higher
education should be a national pri
ority because the demand for well
educated citizens is increasingly
important in a competitive, highly
QJfjr iotiy (Ear Mrrl
Secretary of
Education
Margaret
Spellings said
higher educa
tion reform is a
priority.
global economy.
To fix these problems Spellings
outlined her action plan to better
prepare students, starting with
high standards and accountability'
in public schools.
Spellings said the No Child Left
Behind Act, a federal education
program, has improved primary
education.
But she said that high schools
have not been able to replicate this
success.
“A million kids drop out every
single year,” she said.
“And those who do graduate
often aren’t prepared for college.”
Affordability is the next chal
lenge facing higher education,
Spellings said.
In the past five years tuition at
four-year colleges has increased by
40 percent.
“Higher education’s escalating
sticker price has many parents fac
ing the tough choice whether to
save for college or their own retire
ment,” she said.
Rising tuition costs also are
creating a barrier to higher edu
cation for lower-income students,
Spellings said.
“For low-income, mostly minor
ity students, college is becoming
virtually unattainable.”
Spellings stressed the impor
tance of implementing reforms to
the nation’s higher education sys
tem.
“For the sake of our students and
our future, this is one test we must
not fail.”
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.