Participants in the Summer Experience for Emerging
Diverse Scholars (SEEDS) program pose for a photo in
the Kent Student Center.

Kent State University’s College of Education, Health and Human Services welcomed its second class of the Summer Experience for Emerging Diverse Scholars (SEEDS) program on June 17. The SEEDS program promotes graduate education within the college to prospective graduate students of diverse backgrounds, specifically African-American, Latino American, Asian-American and Native American. It is co-sponsored by the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Kent State.

The program allows participating students to meet face-to-face with their future faculty members, students in their program and other graduate programs, and receive introductions to area and local attractions while ultimately qualifying for funding that contributes to their education at Kent State.

“SEEDS Scholars are selected by the college’s faculty from their interested program through an application process that began in December,” says N.J. Akbar, director of the Office of Diversity Outreach and Development in Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services.

“We were excited to welcome students from a wide range of undergraduate institutions in addition to Kent State,” he adds. “We had students from the University of Mount Union, Eastern Michigan University, Central State University, The University of Akron, The Ohio State University, University of Minnesota, Hiram College, Baldwin Wallace University and Bowling Green State University who all came to explore our campus with the overall goal of helping the scholars see this as a place for their graduate education.”

Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services and the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion collectively provide meals, lodging and transportation within the area for all the SEEDS scholars while they were on campus. Participating students must be willing to provide their own transportation to and from the university.

All SEEDS scholars receive a $1,000 Dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Services Scholarship for their participation should they enroll in a program within the college for graduate school. Two students entering in fall 2015 will receive college-sponsored SEEDS Graduate Assistantships placed in the University College’s Student Support Services and the Office of Diversity Outreach in the College of Education, Health and Human Services.

“The SEEDS program is just one way that our college is displaying its commitment to diversity and increased access to advanced education,” Akbar says.

For more information about the SEEDS program at Kent State, contact the Office of Diversity Outreach and Development within the College of Education, Health and Human Services at 330-672-2537 or ehhsdiversity@kent.edu.

For more information about Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services, visit www.kent.edu/ehhs.