UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies is preparing students for the rigors of a graduate education through its eight-week Summer Humanities Institute, which recently received renewed funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for an additional three years.

Since 2001, the Bunche Center and UCLA's Graduate Division have brought together some of the best and brightest students from across the country to expose them to what the university has to offer.

For many of this year's 20 students, it is the first time they have studied at a major research university and traveled to Los Angeles. This year's institute started June 27 and ends Aug. 21.

The free program is open to undergraduates in their junior or senior year, particularly those from historically black colleges and universities and other historically underrepresented students. The program's goal is to prepare students with an economic or educational disadvantage to pursue a doctoral degree in the humanities or the humanistic social sciences.

"The institute is a tangible effort on our part to reach out to communities of students that are underrepresented in American academe, to mentor them and encourage them to pursue graduate study," said Darnell Hunt, director of the UCLA Bunche Center and professor of sociology. "We also gain because they bring to us perspectives on contemporary issues that might not be so familiar to us here in Southern California."

During the day, students attend humanities seminars focused on this year's theme, "Race and Oppression: Exploring W.E.B. Dubois' Color Line in the New Millennium." The afternoons are devoted to workshops on how to write personal statements, research proposals and annotated bibliographies, among other topics. In the evenings, students attend classes to help them prepare for the Graduate Record Examination, which is required to apply for graduate school. In addition, students meet with a graduate student mentor and professor, and work on a research paper. On weekends, students go on field trips exploring Los Angeles’ rich cultural diversity.

"The main benefit the students gain from participation in the institute is exposure to the rigor and expectations of graduate study at a research university such as UCLA," Hunt said. "After successfully completing the institute, a student will be in a better position to understand the type of commitment needed to succeed in doing advanced research in such fields as history, literature and philosophy."

"They will have the unique opportunity to work with some of the most distinguished scholars in these fields," Hunt said. "Our hope is that these students will be challenged to take up graduate study in the humanities and go on to become professors in the field."

Jason Metzger, a senior at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, who is currently enrolled in the seminar, said the institute exposes students from small universities to top-notch research and professors as well as world-class libraries and museums at UCLA and in Los Angeles.

"It is providing resources to people who would not normally have access to such a program," Metzger said.

The institute also has motivated Metzger to apply to a master's program in African American Studies at UCLA and a Ph.D. in psychology.

"UCLA really creates a good atmosphere for students and exposes us to excellent resources and faculty," he said.

Larry Harper, a student at Virginia State University, Petersburg, and also part of this year’s institute, said he's amazed at the resources UCLA has to offer its graduate students, particularly when it comes to research.

"Everything is right at your fingertips," said Harper, who plans to pursue graduate work in counselor education with a concentration in community counseling. "If I need a book, there are several of them at several different locations."

Amber Moore, a Spelman College, Atlanta, Ga., graduate and also in this year's program, said many of the students arrived at UCLA nervous and unsure about what to expect at a large research university. But the students quickly gained confidence in their abilities because they have succeeded in an intensive graduate-style program.

"The program has really been helpful in showing me what to expect in graduate school," she said.