Contact: Sharon Britton, Director of Communications
978-749-4295

June 2002

The (MS)2 program will run this year from June 25 to July 30 with a total of 106 new and returning students from around the country. This summer, (MS)2 will celebrate its 25th anniversary July 12, with the return of scores of alumni who credit the program with changing their lives, too. Media representatives who would like to visit, attend classes and talk with students should contact Sharon Britton, director of communications.

What is (MS)2 and whom does it serve?

(MS)2 - which stands for Math and Science for Minority Students - is a three-year academic summer program focused on mathematics and science for students of color, aimed at addressing an acute historic underrepresentation of African American, Native American and Hispanic/Latino people in medical, engineering and scientific professions. (MS)2 bolsters the academic ability of capable students of color from across the nation by supplementing the work of their public high schools during a rigorous five-week program taught by master teachers during three consecutive summers on the campus of Phillips Academy.

Students enter the (MS)2 program during the summer following 9th grade, and take courses in mathematics, science and English and receive college counseling. Admission is highly selective (with about seven applicants for each place) and is based on scholastic achievement, academic potential, interest in mathematics and science, personal recommendations of high school teachers and financial need.

Approximately 35 new students enter the program, which serves a total of 106 students each summer. It is open to African-American and Hispanic/Latino students from public schools in Baltimore, Md.; Boston, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; Fort Worth, Texas; Lawrence, Mass; Louisville, Ky; Memphis, Tenn; New York, N.Y.; and Washington, D.C. Native American students may apply from any geographic area of the United States.

What is the academic program like?

• The rigors of the program are designed to help the (MS)2 scholar become a more self-reliant and self-confident student, especially in the areas of math an science, where there is an acute shortage of professional people of color. Emphasis is placed on deepening the student's understanding of fundamental concepts, while appropriately challenging those who have mastered these concepts. Courses are taught by master private and public school teachers and university teachers; the pace is fast; the homework assignments are substantial; and the selectivity of the program assures that both students and faculty have high expectations for the work to be accomplished in every course.
• In each of the three summers, the (MS)2 student takes a mathematics course that meets 9.5 hours per week, a 9.5 hours per week science course and a course in writing that meets four hours each week.
• In addition to the classroom work, the (MS)2 program offers academic, cultural and social experiences on- and off-campus. Cultural sharing is an important highlight of the summer. Although the (MS)2 students have their own academic program, they are part of the concurrently-run Phillips Academy Summer Session of some 600 students. Summer Session students, who come from all over the country and the world, share residential life with (MS)2 students in the dormitories, dining halls and through athletics and recreational activities.
  

Has (MS)2 had an impact nationally?

(MS)2 has reached into schools in urban centers throughout the country including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Forth Worth, Lawrence, Mass., Louisville, Cleveland, Dayton, Memphis, New York and Washington, D.C..

• Additionally, recent recruitment efforts have enabled a growing number of Native American students to enroll—15 to 20 per year.
• In 2001, Native American students from seven tribes were enrolled.
• A growing number of (MS)2 alumni serve as mentors for incoming scholars, act as admission interviewers and assist in fundraising efforts.
• As reported by teachers and guidance counselors, (MS)2 scholars carry positive momentum back to their home schools through their enthusiasm for learning, excellence in schoolwork and newly-kindled ambitions.
• Since the inception of (MS)2 , Forth Worth, Texas, has established a program modeled on (MS)2 called HS+ (High School+) and Louisville established a similar program for junior high students.
  

What are the measures of the program's success?

• Ninety-seven percent of all (MS)2 graduates have enrolled in college immediately after high school graduation.
• Based on a 1994 survey, 79 percent of the program’s graduates have gone on to major in math- or science-related fields. Many have received doctoral degrees in medicine and science and many are pursuing doctorates.
• Through 2001, more than 700 students have graduated from (MS)2.
• Graduates have enrolled in a total of 178 colleges as of the year 2000.
• The seven most popular colleges attended by (MS)2 graduates include Brown, (52); Dartmouth, (41); MIT, (23); Oberlin, (19); Stanford (19); University of Pennsylvania, (18); and Howard, (17).

What does (MS)2 cost and how is it financed?

• The annual operating expenses of (MS)2 , which educates 106 students for five weeks each summer, are approximately $425,000.
• The annual budget is financed by three sources of support: outright gifts from corporations, foundations and individual donors; income from a growing (MS)2 endowment and operating funds from Phillips Academy’s annual budget. (See enclosed Director’s Report 2001, page 11.)
• In recognition of the program’s distinguished history, the Board of Trustees of Phillips Academy in fall 1998 endorsed a new objective to augment the endowment of (MS)2 , which in June 2001 stood at approximately $4.2 million. The goal is to raise the endowment by an additional $2 million by June 2002. To date, more than $1.1 million new commitments have been raised toward this end.
• All students receive full tuition (about $4,600 per year and $13,800 for three years). The program pays for tuition, room, board, textbooks and course materials. Financial aid is available depending on need to pay for transportation, to and from Andover, medical insurance and incidental expenditures.

A profile of (MS)2 director Temba T. Maqubela

A member of the Phillips Academy chemistry faculty since 1987, Temba Maqubela brings a powerful personal story about the importance of education and hard work to the classes he teaches at Andover. He tells his students, "Science saved me!"

Active in the volatile anti-apartheid youth movement in South Africa in the mid-1970s, Maqubela was arrested by the South African Police from his high school biology class in 1976, one month before graduation. Accused of being a terrorist by the South African government, Maqubela was released from detention on a technicality. Fearing pressure from the government to provide state's witness against other young South Africans or be jailed, he fled to Botswana, where, with the help of the Nigerian government, he eventually received high school equivalency certification. Later, Maqubela enrolled at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and received his bachelor’s in chemistry in 1983.

He returned to Botswana to teach high school, but had to flee the country after a cross-border raid by the South African Defense Forces in 1985 resulted in the murder of a close friend and threatened his life and that of his wife and infant son.

With $200 to his name, Maqubela came to New York City in 1986 with his wife and infant son and lived in a homeless shelter. He got his first job working as a cashier at the Museum of Natural History and eventually moved to the South Bronx and got a job teaching in at the Long Island City High School in Queens.

A friend helped get him job interviews at Phillips Academy and at another independent school in the Boston area. Maqubela says this about the experience:

Whereas at the other school I was told during my interviews that I would teach introduction to physical science before being allowed to teach chemistry, at Andover they asked me, "Which chemistry course would you like to teach?" You cannot imagine what impact
that had on a 28 year-old political refugee from South Africa. Generations of my people could not teach any race other than theirs. To be actually asked such a question was both the beginning of my journey towards reconciliation as well as my first acknowledgement of the significance of the phrase (in Phillips Academy’s Constitution) "Youth from every quarter."

Maqubela accepted a teaching position at Phillips Academy in 1987, and during a sabbatical in 1992, earned his master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Kentucky. While at Kentucky, he received the Lyman T. Johnson Award for Excellence in Science and was honored at the White House with the Distinguished Teacher Award. In 1994, he accepted the position of chairman of the Department of Chemistry at Andover and became director of (MS)2 in 2001.

Maqubela was elected in 2002 to the Aula Laudis honor society for excellence in secondary school chemistry teaching by the Northeast Section of the American Chemical Society.