News

Applications have been flooding in from both sides of the Atlantic for Generating Genius, the programme set up to encourage scientific interest among young black boys in the UK and Jamaica.

The programme is to be officially launched in Kensington, west London on May 12, courtesy of sponsors Jamaica National Building Society, yet it has already ignited the minds of budding scientists in the black community, far exceeding the expectations of its organisers.

“We are uncovering a ground swell of potential scientists out there,” said Tony Sewell, the mastermind behind the scheme. “I was really surprised how many wanted to do this. We have in our community lots of boys who want to get into science.

“It shows that there are a lot of very bright black boys out there given the high kind of criteria we have set.

“It also counters the fears some people had that many of the boys would not want to be away from their mothers, given that they are only 12, but this proves they do not mind leaving and they want to go to Jamaica.”

The programme seeks to recruit 12-year-old (Year 7) boys to become doctors and research scientists by sending them to a summer school at the University of the West Indies’ Mona Campus in Jamaica, over five years.

The ten boys from the UK will join ten from Jamaica each summer to be trained by university lecturers. Each weekend they will also experience other aspects of Jamaican cultural life with visits to the prime minister and governor general, and a specially organised arts programme.

Generating Genius has sparked interest from other quarters and is being filmed by Channel 4. A series of television interviews are also lined up for Jamaica.

Conversely, however, there has been expressed disappointment that the programme is only open to boys – a sentiment over which Sewell shows empathy.

But, he explained: “The reason why we are doing this is that I was approached by the University of the West Indies about the lack of boys on their campus. The university has 70 per cent females on campus; those are the figures. It’s the rationale behind the programme and how it started, it’s why we have a male only programme.

“However,” he added, “I will be taking girls in the future.”

Next year Sewell hopes the programme will attract enough funding to increase the number of recruits going to Jamaica to 100.

The closing date for applications is June 6 after which potential candidates will be shortlisted to attend an interview by an independent panel, which includes some top scientists.

Applications forms are available by emailing: generatinggenius@yahoo.co.uk

Published: 12 May 2005
Issue: 1165