Dario 0. Prieto There is considerable evidence that campus climate has a great deal to do with the success or failure of students in higher education. Astin (1 993) and Pascarella and Terenzini ( 1 991) demonstrated the value of involvement on campus for students and the importance of programs to encourage that involvement. Sedlacek ( I 996) has shown the importance of community For what he called "nontraditional students," those from racial or cultural groups other than White, middle-class, young, and heterosexual.As more universities and colleges develop and sustain programs to encourage diversity, one must study the effects these programs have on the campus climate and the resulting implications for all students, traditional and nontraditional. Sedlacek (1 994)

Since 1985, the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, through its Office of Community and Minority Health Education, has operated the Summer Science Program for Louisiana high school students from underrepresented minorities. The authors conducted a survey during the 1997-98 academic year of the 773 students who had participated in the summer program from 1985 to 1997. The goal was to learn what education and career paths these students had taken since leaving the program. A total of 665 students (89.4%) responded. Sixty-one were still in high school, 11 had not continued their education after completing high school, but 432 of the remaining 583 students had chosen education paths in medicine, another health profession, or science, and 31 were enrolled in or had graduated from medical school. These findings indicate that the majority of the summer program students had maintained the health and/or science career interests they had expressed during their time in the program. Future studies will use control groups to better ascertain how influential the summer program was in helping students choose and maintain science and health education and career paths.