Program
Overview
This program will not be available for the 2006-2007 school
year.
Haverford
College has been awarded a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
to support a Program in Science and Society. This program is not a Major or
an Area of Concentration, but a cluster of courses and opportunities for students
interested in exploring the interplay between society and technology and the
cultural issues raised by modern science, in such areas as biomedical ethics,
public health, science education, and environmental science. The HHMI Science
and Society Scholars complete a rigorous interdisciplinary plan of study, conduct
an internship, and complete a capstone experience. All students, regardless
of major, who are strongly interested in the relations between science, technology
and society, and are willing to commit to a broad program of study encompassing
courses in all three divisions, may apply for this program.
The
Requirements
- A Natural Science
foundation to provide the understanding of modern science: six semesters
of science (with laboratories) with no more than three from a single department,
plus a one-semester course that involves the application of probability
and statistics. Courses that fulfill the statistics requirement are: Math
103 Introduction to Probability and Statistics, Math 104 (BMC) Elements
of Probability and Statistics, Econ 203 Statistical Methods in Economics,
Psych 113 Psychological Statistics, Math 203 Statistical Methods and their
Applications, GNPR 221 Issues in Public Health, and Psych 205 (BMC) Experimental
Methods and Statistics. The selection of these courses may be tailored to
fulfill admission requirements for medical school, graduate school in the
sciences, science education or public policy.
- A complement of
relevant courses from all three divisions that defines the specific
plan of study. For example, some students may be interested in ethical questions
associated with the human genome project or reproductive technologies; others
by social justice issues in public health policy; others by political, historical,
and economic determinants of environmental safety. Early planning is important,
since several of the courses in the cluster have limited enrollments and/or
pre-requisites. View
a listing of of all the Tri-College courses that fulfill this requirement
follows.
- A research project
or internship. Typically this internship will occur in the summer after
the junior year, or during the first semester of senior year. Three stipends
will be available during the summer of 2006. View
examples of recent internship experiences.
- A capstone conference
course. This course, GNPR 494 "Senior Conference in Science and
Society" is completed in the fall of the internship year and provides
opportunities for discussions with fellow interns. It requires the completion
of a 20-30 page analytical paper that expands significantly on what students
have learned through their own fieldwork, research, and advanced course
work in the program.
Applying
to the Program
This program will
not be available for the 2006-2007 school year.
Students may apply in their sophomore or junior year. To apply one is required
to submit
- a copy of
your transcript,
- a three to
five page personal statement (see below for details), including your internship
or research goals,
- a proposed
program of study and funding request using the application
form, and
- the name of
a faculty member within the Natural Science division who will advise you
as you prepare for your internship.
Program
and Application Details
Personal Statement: The personal statement should:
- address
why you would like to participate in this program, what you hope to gain
from it, and your eventual career goals,
- describe the type of
internship or research you plan to pursue in as much detail as possible,including
where you will be working and the goals of the organization, your supervisor
or contact person, and the dates of your internship, and tell why you are
interested in this field, and
- indicate how the courses
you've taken and plan to take are relevant to your particular area of interest.
If you
have any questions about your application or the process of developing your
internship project, contact Kate Heston (ph: 610-896-1369; kheston@haverford.edu).
Research
Project or Internship: Each Science and Society Scholar is expected to do
a research project or internship. Typically this internship will occur in the
summer after the junior year, or during the first semester of the senior year.
There are three ways in which this requirement may be fulfilled:
- You may request funding
from the program to carry out your research or internship. The HHMI grant
to Haverford College enables us to offer up to three full stipends each
summer, however, this program will not be available
for the 2006-2007 school year.
- You may arrange an
internship which is not funded by the HHMI grant. If you have applied or
will be applying for one of these stipends, please indicate which funding
sources and the date of the award decisions.
-
You
may pursue your research or internship as an independent study during
an academic semester. This possibility might, for example, be combined
with your senior research project, if the Science and Society Committee
and your major department both consent.
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Last update January 22, 2007
