Figure 1: Components of a CLiPS LRT

1. The First Graduating Class of the Polymer Envoys Program Eric Baer, Case Western Reserve University, DMR 0423914 The Polymer Envoys Program (PEP) is the key pre-college outreach program in the Center for Layered Polymeric Systems (CLiPS), a NSF Science and Technology Center. PEP’s primary goal is to excite and prepare a diverse group of American high school students for undergraduate, and ultimately graduate, studies in STEM. This is accomplished by involving PEP students in year-round research under the guidance of a CLiPS graduate student. Often these groups also include undergraduate students, which allows for mentoring of various levels of students at the same time. In CLiPS, this team structure is called a Layered Research Team (LRT). PEP was created by Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). The current high schools involved are East, Glenville, and Health Careers @ MLK. CLiPS also hosts PEP sites at two additional institutions: The University of Texas - Austin; and Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 1: Components of a CLiPS LRT Figure 2: PEP Students at CWRU

2. The First Graduating Class of the Polymer Envoys Program Eric Baer, Case Western Reserve University, DMR 0423914 Although the participants’ involvement in PEP officially lasts two years, the relationships lead to long-term interactions. In the first graduating class of the CWRU/CMSD program, two participants will matriculate at CWRU in Fall 2008 and major in engineering. These students, both Black females, are graduates of Cleveland’s Glenville High School and the High Tech Academy at Cuyahoga Community College. Both alumnae are members of Prof. David Schiraldi’s research group and study novel glass nanoparticles used in CLiPS barrier materials. On these projects they work with a CLiPS graduate student at CWRU and an undergraduate student from Penn State Behrend, another CLiPS Institution. In addition to recruiting the PEP students to CWRU, this LRT has been instrumental in encouraging the undergraduate student to strongly consider CWRU for graduate studies. a b Figure 3: PEP alumnae, Ms. Alexis Crosby (a) and Ms. Taneisha Deans (b), work in the lab under the guidance of graduate student Mr. Mohit Gupta.