GTE awards $450,000 to 15 U.S. colleges and universities to increase the pipeline of minority undergraduate students in math, science and engineering.

IRVING, Texas -GTE Corp. today announced the award of grants totaling $450,000 to 15 U.S. colleges and universities for innovative pre-college and undergraduate programs that will enable them to recruit and support qualified minority students in the mathematics, science and engineering disciplines. The grants, part of the GTE FOCUS program, were made by the GTE Foundation.

The $30,000 grants, to be used during 1999-2000, will fund programs designed to give minority students the incentives, skills and support systems they will need to complete an undergraduate degree in a technical discipline. The GTE FOCUS program was created in 1982 to help colleges and universities respond creatively to issues affecting higher education and business. To date, it has contributed $6.5 million to more than 230 colleges and universities throughout the United States.

"GTE has had a long-standing commitment to provide educational assistance to students, particularly those in math and science, said Maureen Gorman," vice president of the GTE Foundation. "By tapping into such groups as African-American, Hispanic-American and Native American students, who are traditionally under-represented in technical disciplines, the GTE FOCUS program helps create a broad pool of future technical talent for U.S. business."

Added Dr. Guy Vickers, executive director of the Southeastern Consortium for Minorities in Engineering: "The GTE FOCUS Grants Program is an investment in human resources. FOCUS facilitates the efforts of colleges and universities to ensure that all U.S. students are exposed to opportunities in science, mathematics, engineering and technology. GTE's FOCUS grants are unique in that they foster collaboration and partnerships among school systems, colleges and universities and local industry."

Programs Prepare Students for Science and Technology-related College Opportunities

California State University at Long Beach--The Cal State Long Beach Summer Physics program will provide an intense eight-week program emphasizing "hands-on" research in the physical sciences for under-represented high school and community college students. Students will be exposed to computer analysis tools for solving physics problems and use these tools during the course of their work on specially designed research projects. Each student will be paired with another student and a faculty member, and asked to complete a total of three two-week long research projects.

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.--The Purdue University program will provide junior high and high school students with an opportunity to participate in an Engineering Pre-College Summer program on campus as well as a Pre-College Recruitment program. Students will be exposed to engineering role models, team-building skills and hands-on science activities. In addition, they will be encouraged to maintain their interest in science and engineering through direct participation of parents and engineering faculty serving as mentors in these programs.

Other Grant Recipients

Grants also have been awarded to: Albany State University, Albany, Ga; Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz; California Polytechnic Pomona University, Pomona, Calif; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo; Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Wash; University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla; Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, N.J.; State University of New York at Brockport, Brockport, N.Y.; State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, N.Y.; Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Ill.; The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Universidad del Turabo, Gurabo, Puerto Rico; Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans La.

About GTE Foundation

The GTE Foundation, a leading U.S. corporate foundation, supports a variety of educational, charitable and scientific activities across the United States and its possessions on behalf of GTE and its subsidiaries.

With 1998 revenues of more than $25 billion, GTE is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and a leading provider of integrated telecommunications services. In the United States, GTE provides local service in 28 states and wireless service in 17 states; nationwide long-distance and internetworking services ranging from dial-up Internet access for residential and small-business consumers to Web-based applications for Fortune 500 companies; as well as video service in selected markets.

# # #