Dr. John Adeyeye
Poor old statistics.
Young people, particularly African-Americans and other minorities, can’t see why they should major in such a field — even the math majors. There’s no glamour, no excitement. They just aren’t interested. And so the statistics (excuse the pun) show a nationwide decline in the number of minority students studying math and statistics as a major.
Dr. John O. Adeyeye, professor and chair of mathematics, wants to change those numbers. He is studying ways to get students more interested in studying statistics – at least at WSSU.
“Part of minority students’ reluctance to major in mathematics and particularly statistics is due to the apparent lack of understanding of clear career paths aside from teaching or proceeding to graduate school,” Adeyeye notes.
Adeyeye points to a critical need for statistical knowledge in research design, data analysis and other relevant industrial applications and real career possibilities.
He has received a two-year, $163,000 National Science Foundation grant to implement a mathematics degree with a statistics emphasis, develop interdisciplinary statistics research and instruction models at WSSU, and provide considerable career development experiences for students to prepare them for the statistics workforce in such fields as agriculture, business, engineering, meteorology, geography, education, aviation, health research, science research and advanced research.
Adeyeye says his study will create new opportunities to expand the career options for mathematics majors at the university — and maybe, just maybe, students will see math and statistics as cool.
