DO-IT Scholars Program Goes National!

Embarking on its fourth year of funding through the National Science Foundation, DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) is extending outreach efforts from high school students with disabilities in its original Northwest region to those in all fifty states. DO-IT works to increase the representation of individuals with disabilities in science, engineering, and mathematics (SEM) post-secondary education programs and careers. Winner of the National Information Infrastructure award in education, it promotes the use of computers, adaptive technology, and the Internet network by individuals with disabilities for quick and easy access to people and information.

Each year, twenty high school students with disabilities who are interested in SEM college programs and careers are accepted into the DO-IT Scholars program. They are loaned computers, adaptive technology, and Internet accounts to venture into cyberspace. Guided by electronic mentors (college students and professionals, most with disabilities themselves), Scholars seek out information on-line year-round to help with school assignments, further their interests in science, and make new friends. Scholars meet face-to-face at the University of Washington for a live-in summer study program where they attend labs and lectures in science, engineering, and math and get a taste of real college living while staying in the dorms.

DO-IT supports a broader community through workshops, presentations, publications, videotapes, a World Wide Web (WWW) page, and electronic discussion lists. To find out more about DO-IT, check out the WWW home page at http://www.washington.edu/doit/ , or contact the DO-IT office.