News & Notes: Educational program for minority students receives Shell grant

The W.E.B. DuBois Scholars Institute at Princeton University, a leadership program for minority high school students, received a $100,000 donation from Shell Oil Company on Monday, The Princeton Packet reported.

“This new gift allows us to keep the infrastructure in place year-round to plan and operate our engineering academy,” institute founder Sherle Boone told the Packet.

For five weeks each year, program participants take college-level courses in various fields and attend classes to prepare for standardized tests. They also take off-campus field trips.

The Institute comprises seven academies. One of these is the Shell Oil Engineering Academy, which aims to spark interest in engineering careers among program participants. Its curriculum focuses on math, biology and physics.

In its more than 20-year history, the Institute has given 1,300 students the opportunity to cultivate their leadership and academic potential.

“For my kids, it gave them an opportunity to go deeper, take the knowledge they currently have and take it to the next level,” Eugenia Sims, a resident of Princeton Township who has had three children participate in the program, said in the report.