University of Vermont Environmentalists Court Minority Students

David Lucero grew up in Jamaica, Queens, and he was trying to connect with a group of students in a large classroom overflowing with plants and fish tanks at the High School for Environmental Studies on Manhattan’s West Side.

Mr. Lucero, 22, will soon begin a doctoral program in molecular biology and genetics at the University of Vermont. When he spent a day at the high school recently, his prime goal was to encourage other Latino students, as well as black and Asian-American students, to pursue environmental studies in college and as a career.

Three other Vermont seniors also made the trip, on a mission to recruit minority students from New York City to the state university in Burlington, overlooking Lake Champlain. It is not easy to sell 16- and 17-year-olds on the virtues of camping, hiking, ice skating and living in a small city near the Canadian border when they are more familiar with urban culture, like where to transfer from the E train to the A.”*

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