Sold on Science

Nicolaus Copernicus. Galileo Galilei. Sir Isaac Newton. Jennifer Rene Obakhume.

Jennifer who?

In truth, Jennifer Rene Obakhume does not yet qualify to be listed among history’s leading scientists. But if the 8-year-old student at the Saturday Science Academy near Watts lives up to her dream, she’ll make the list.

“I’m going to go to Neptune and come back with a cure for cancer,” said Jennifer, a student at Highland Elementary School in Inglewood who is in her first year of the program.

The Saturday courses, held on the campus of the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in the Willowbrook district, are designed to provide minority low-income children ages 6 to 14 with the opportunity to get an early start in becoming scientists and doctors.

The program offers classes like “Doctor for a Day,” “Shark Dissection,” “Metamorphosis of a Butterfly” and “The Cell-Basis for Life.” In class the students wear white smocks and call each other “Doctor.”

“These kids won’t be in our jails. They will be the ones moving Los Angeles forward,” said Drew University President Reed V. Tuckson. “These kids don’t consider themselves victims of anything. They are in control.”

Last Saturday, the science program hosted a semester-ending ceremony and reception on the grounds of the university, across the street from Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

Among the more then 500 people in attendance was a delegation from the Ministry of Health and Education of the People’s Republic of China.

“In China we have heard about the drugs and crime in Watts and South-Central,” said Dr. Jin Chun Tiam, head of the delegation. “Now we are starting to hear about education.”

Started in 1993, the six-month-a-year program now serves 200 children. The tuition is $150 for three eight-week semesters, although scholarships are often awarded to students from extremely low-income households.

Drew President Tuckson is impressed by the children’s motivation.

“These students are so eager to go to school on Saturdays they are waking their parents up,” Tuckson said during the ceremony in a makeshift tent set up in the school’s parking lot. “If you create an atmosphere that demands and expects quality, and that is engaging, the students will be fully committed.”

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During the ceremony, students gave speeches, recited poems and performed skits about their classes.

Students appreciate the early exposure the Saturday Science Program gives them.

“In the second grade here they taught us about the human body, and we didn’t learn that in elementary school until the fifth grade,” said Adam Weatherall-Taylor, 10, a Windsor Hills Elementary School student who is starting his fourth year at Drew. “I love this school.”

Adam’s mother, Lisa Weatherall, is a teacher at the Saturday program, as well as a premedical student at the University of La Verne. After the tent ceremony, Weatherall and some of her students were at the “brain booth,” one of several exhibitions set up for parents and visitors.

To impress a reporter, Weatherall called over two 10-year-old students and gave them a pop quiz on the brain. Cheree Bell and Adriana Goni discussed the cortex, various functions of brain parts and the medulla oblongata.

“This school is one of the main reasons I live in Los Angeles,” said Shaibu Obakhume, father of Neptune-bound Jennifer. “If it wasn’t for this school, I’d probably move out to the suburbs.”