How did you spend your summer vacation? Likely not immersed in statistics on the University of Nevada, Reno campus. Unless you were one of 10 students from across the country selected to attend a newly added program promoting careers and advanced degrees in statistics.
It's called Research for Undergraduates Summer Institute of Statistics at the University of Nevada, Reno or RUSIS@UNR.
University professor Javier Rojo began and led the program for a decade at Rice University before bringing it here this year as chair of the University of Nevada, Reno's Math and Statistics Department. The RUSIS program was the focus of KUNR's Beyond the Headlines, with Rojo and University Provost Kevin Carman as guests.
According to the University, the mission of the intensive 10-week summer program, which ran May through August 1, is to train and mentor underrepresented, minority undergraduate students, in particular those students without easy access to career experiences. The institute stimulates interest in statistics by exposing the students to actual research problems in the field and by providing guidance and encouragement to pursue a doctorate in the mathematical sciences.
The students are selected on academic performance, as well as perseverance and creativity that signal potential for success in graduate school.
Rojo joined the University of Nevada, Reno as chair of the Mathematics and Statistics Department in 2014, coming to Reno from Rice University where he first established the institute in 2003. Read more about the program from the University of Nevada, Reno.
