THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270250
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 122 lines
On the first day of class Monday, Robert O. Scott covered a lot of ground in his introductory lecture on zoology.
The new assistant professor of biology at Norfolk State University offered a brief history of the beginnings of the science, starting with Robert Hooke's discovery of the cell in the 17th century.
He reviewed different parts of the cell, such as mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus. He went over the production of proteins.
He also slipped in a bit of autobiographical material when talking about the excessive air conditioning in the room.
``Believe it or not,'' he told the 30 students, ``I used to sit where you're sitting. I'm a graduate of Norfolk State. When it got too cold, we used to open up the windows.''
But if he was thorough in his scientific teaching, he didn't tell the full story about himself.
Scott, who joined Norfolk State's faculty during the summer at age 26, is the youngest full-time faculty member in the university's school of sciences.
The Suffolk native is also the first graduate of NSU's 10-year-old honors science program - the Dozoretz National Institute for Minorities in Applied Sciences - to receive a doctorate. And the first to return to Norfolk State as a professor.
``That's an honor,'' said Tyrone Patterson, a sophomore in the zoology class. ``A lot of students from this university don't come back.''
Harrison B. Wilson, the university's president, thinks so, too.
He's been crowing about Scott for months. In Wilson's back-to-school speech to professors last week, he repeated the story he loves to tell about Scott's first weeks as a doctoral student at Georgia Tech in 1991.
``The first day, the students tried to intimidate him,'' Wilson said. ``They said, `Where are you from?' He said, `Norfolk State.' They said, `Where's that?' ''
Then came the first test in Scott's biotechnology class. There were 20 students, graduates of schools like Auburn and Stanford - and Scott. After the first exam, the results were posted. The grades ranged from 93 to the mid-60s. Scott got the 93.
``We couldn't let him get away from us,'' Wilson told the faculty last week. ``We want him to be a role model for other young people.''
Scott had plenty of attractive job offers - the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
``I wanted to come back to Norfolk State because students need success stories to motivate them sometimes,'' Scott said in an interview. ``Sometimes students wonder, `Will I compete with students who go to majority schools?' One of the things I want to show them is `You're just as well-prepared.'
``I can tell that story better right now, right here.''
Scott developed his interest in biology at the former John F. Kennedy High School in Suffolk, where he graduated in 1987.
He is one of seven children in his family. His father, Fred, is the minister at the Word for Living Community Holiness Church, a nondenominational Christian church; his mother, Maurice, is a homemaker.
Scott attended Norfolk State, he said, primarily because of the full scholarship that students in the Dozoretz honors program receive.
``To me, the classes were very hard; the professors were demanding, but they were also fair,'' Scott said. ``I would put what I learned at Norfolk State against what any other biology major learned at any other university.''
There were other benefits, too - such as the rock-solid support of fellow Dozoretz students. ``When you were ready to let one class go, you had somebody there to challenge you to stay that extra hour,'' he said.
Scott graduated from Norfolk State with a 3.5 average, midway between an A and B. He did even better at Georgia Tech. He received his doctorate this spring, keeping up a 3.7 average - or roughly an A-minus.
He found that his Norfolk State training stood him in good stead, and not just during that first biotechnology class. At Georgia Tech, Scott had to take a year of biochemistry. The first semester he barely had to study ``because it was the same thing I had with Dr. (Alan) Rowe'' at Norfolk State.
At Georgia Tech, he got his first taste of teaching, as a teaching assistant in undergraduate labs and an occasional lecturer in courses such as immunology and cell biology. He wanted to keep doing it.
``I like looking at students and seeing that light bulb pop on over their heads,'' he said. But Scott also knows when they can be in trouble. ``I remember that glazed look in my eyes when I got lost.''
One of the goals of the Dozoretz program is to produce more minority professors. ``We are fortunate to get the first fruits from that,'' said Clarence Coleman, dean of Norfolk State's School of Health-Related Professions and Natural Sciences.
Beyond motivating the students, Scott is ``going to pump new life into the faculty,'' Coleman said. ``They're going to say, `Hey, look, I've got to keep up with the Scotts.' ''
Scott, who now lives in Chesapeake, is boyish-looking. When he visited the president's office this summer, Wilson recalled that he thought Scott was a high school student looking for a scholarship.
But Monday, Scott led his class in the Woods Science Building with quiet authority. He told his students, mostly freshmen and sophomores interested in majoring in biology, that he would teach ``in a fashion where students all understand what's going on. I don't want to write notes on the board until your hands ache.''
Scott urged them to feel free to come to his office ``whether you have a problem or not.'' Then he told them some of his peeves: Don't come to class late. And don't fall asleep.
``If you're bored or not really interested, look at me and pretend you're interested,'' he said. ``That makes me feel better. If you get really, really sleepy, just come up front and I'll talk directly to you.''
After reviewing the ground rules, he launched into an unusually fact-packed lecture for a first day of class. He stopped at one point to ask, ``Am I going too fast? I can get carried away about biology.''
During a break between the lecture and lab, sophomore Cheria Askew said she thought he'd be a good professor. ``He's very straightforward and tells you what he doesn't want done. Plus, he can relate to us. He's closer to our age.
``I think he will be a good role model; he's just an example to other males to follow in his footsteps and not give up.''
But Scott showed that he wouldn't cut much slack, even though he went to the same school. He had told the students to take 15 minutes for a break. After 15 minutes, only half of them had returned to the classroom.
``We're not going to have 15-minute breaks anymore; we're going to have a 10-minute break,'' he said. ``It's too long. People can get lost.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
``Believe it or not, I used to sit where you're sitting.''
- ROBERT O. SCOTT, a new assistant professor at NSU, to his
students. Scott, 26, is the first graduate of NSU's honors science
program to receive a doctorate. by CNB