"SIST gives academically talented minority students the opportunity to work along scientists and engineers," said Elliott McCrory, who directs the SIST program with Dianne Engram of the Equal Opportunity Office. Now finishing its 34th year, SIST is Fermilab's oldest educational program. It is open to all undergraduate minority students who have completed their first year of college and are majoring in physics, electrical-mechanical engineering, and computer science. SIST makes a concerted effort to recruit students from historically black colleges and universities.

"The program doesn't work unless they have meaningful jobs and enthusiastic supervisors," McCrory said. "We try to put them where they'll be valued, and I think the quality of their presentations shows they're able to accomplish a lot in their 12 weeks here."

SIST can also lead students into the GEM program, which pays the graduate school tuition of two engineering students each year, and the Fellowship for Minority Students Program, a stipend allowing Ph.D. students to forgo teaching in graduate school to focus solely on their thesis work.

"We're trying to help build a pipeline that brings exceptionally qualified minority students into academia and professional technical careers," Engram said. "Our internship also helps students to hone their writing and researching skills and can significantly increase their chances of getting into graduate school. I know it's working because I've received several letters of recommendation for incoming students from professors who also went through the program."

Ancient societies conceived that the ritual performance of sacred music and dance at auspicious times establishes communication with the higher powers of good and brings about heeling on environmental, social, and personal levels. In Tibet, whenever a monastery celebrated a spiritual festival, people from the surrounding villages and nomadic tribes would assemble for three or four days of sacred music and dance. The Mystical Arts of Tibet tour is designed as a development of this tradition to promote world peace. The presentation has been streamlined in such a way as to maintain the essential integrity and purpose of parts of the celebration.

Since 1988-89, the monks have been touring their traditional monastic music and masked dances across North America, South America, Asia and Europe, visiting more than 100 cities. The artists are monks form the Drepung Loseling Monastery, which has been re-established in exile in south India. The performers are not full-time professionals, but genuine monks who are taking time off from their life-long devotion to participate in the tour.
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