The MD-to-be owes her success to her own scholarship, but a small program called Gateway helped inspire and nurture her. Created in 1986 to boost the skills of students attending the City University of New York, the program engages junior high and high school students in hands-on research and science experiments. "In my old school they underestimated us," relates Gabeau. "But Gateway always challenged us. They never believed that we couldn't do the work they were giving us."
The number of PhDs awarded to minorities in science and engineering has only slightly increased since 1997, according to the most recent unpublished data by the National Science Foundation. African Americans, American Indians, Alaskan natives, and Hispanics comprised 25% of the population in 2000, the latest year for which data has been collected. Nevertheless, only 8.9% of 17,064 science and engineering doctorates went to people in those groups, up from 7.4% in ...
