Timbuktu, LS-LAMP partner to help displaced students recover

The Timbuktu Academy and the LS-LAMP program at Southern University has partnered with other organizations to disburse about $225,000 among displaced STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students and LS-LAMP (Louis Stokes-Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation) scholars now enrolled at Southern and other universities nationwide displaced by the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Almost a month ago, the wrath of Katrina left behind uncertainties for Gulf Coast residents. Students were forced to change schools within short notice as a result of the damage to the city.
The stipends are designed to assist students with tuition costs, books and even housing at their new institutions, but are only awarded to STEM and LS-LAMP students.
“We did not need any meeting,” said Dr. Diola Bagayoko, statewide director of the LS-LAMP program and the director of the Timbuktu Academy, about providing assistance for the displaced students. “On Tuesday, we were on the phone and emailing New Orleans area students and professors and scattered to get them into schools,” he said.
The Timbuktu Academy was established on Southern’s campus in 1990 as a mentor program for undergraduate physics majors.
The LS-LAMP program is an initiative to increase the number of minorities to earn degrees in STEM majors at 12 schools statewide. Five of those schools are in the New Orleans area.
Funding for the students was provided through the National Science Foundation, the Louisiana Board of Regents, the Department of the Navy’s Office of Naval Research, NASA via Iowa State University and the Timbuktu Academy.
According to Bagayoko, 32 students enrolled in the program at Southern, as of Sept. 20, have already received assistance in vouchers of at least $500.
For Joseph Bouie, a junior physics major from Southern University-New Orleans, the transferring process was not hard after he evacuated to Houston.
“I need all the help I can get, especially for books,” Bouie said as he copied information from an assistance flyer in T.H. Harris Hall.
Bouie said it was sort of inconvenient having to purchase books again but is thankful that he was able to continue his education.
“Some (students) were not able to get in institutions,” he said. “Whatever it takes I will do it.”
Although various science majors are eligible for this assistance, Bagayoko said other displaced students who have different majors should visit www.ls-lamp.org or www.phys.subr.edu/timbuktu.htm for more information on other organizations providing assistance.