Clark University student Asniya Iqbal, of Chantilly, receives fellowship as STEM mentor for city youths

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Clark University senior Asniya Iqbal is a Blackstone Fellow in Worcester, Mass.

WORCESTER, MA (11/14/2013)(readMedia)-- Clark University senior Asniya Iqbal, of Chantilly, VA, has been named a Blackstone Fellow by the Worcester Education Collaborative, where she will work as a mentor in the Worcester Public Schools, helping to foster an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects at the elementary and middle school levels. 

"Last year, a number of Clark students participated in the program to the rave review of WPS teachers and administrators," said Jennifer Davis Carey, executive director of the Worcester Education Collaborative. "We are hoping once again to tap this extraordinary pool of young people and to have them share their energy and expertise with local students."

The Blackstone Fellows, working in pairs with a Worcester Public School teacher, will work with fifth-grade students during afterschool science clubs to help them develop and execute projects for the Worcester Science Fair. The Blackstone Fellows will receive a stipend and training with Worcester teachers. The program will run from the week of November 4 to March 11.

The goal of the clubs is to reinforce and apply the STEM skills emphasized in the Worcester Public Schools and to increase the number of students in grade five completing substantive projects for the annual science fair. The program is supported by the EMC Corporation.

Blackstone Fellows program students exhibit an interest in STEM fields as well as comfort working with students from a wide range of backgrounds in an informal setting. The program requires a serious time commitment for both training sessions and the science club meetings.

Iqbal is a graduate of Saint Francis Xavier's Greenherald International School, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At Clark, she majors in biochemistry and molecular biology. She is a member of the International Student Association at Clark and of the international economics honor society Omicron Delta Epsilon. She serves as a Resident Adviser, gaining experience in leadership, management and communication skills.

As a LEEP Pioneer at Clark, Iqbal conducted commercial real estate research at First Washington Realty in Bethesda, Md. Her internship involved analyzing up-and-coming markets and identifying leading locations for economic and job growth. She also forecasted and tracked market trends to determine the economic drivers of the cities in which First Washington was interested in acquiring property

"Asniya is the type of student that most every professor loves to have in their classroom and with whom every administrator enjoys working," says Jennifer Plante, Director of the Writing Program and Writing Center at Clark University.

Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a small, liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark's pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark's faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to complex challenges in the natural sciences, psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University's motto: Challenge convention. Change our world.