Global Research Program
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The Global Research Program was an acclaimed course of study offered in the 1980's and 1990's at the widely known Bronx High School of Science in New York City. Offered as an elective to standard freshman social studies, it became known for being very difficult in addition to being valuable for those who enrolled in it.
The idea for the creation of the program was the result of a perceived need to upgrade the research skills of entering 9th year Global Studies freshmen. It was founded and taught exclusively by Dr. Melvin Maskin. In its original form, the program was designed to provide students with a college-level research experience along the lines of an honors thesis.
The theme throughout the program’s existence was "Challenges to Development." This represented an exploration of the search for solutions to a wide range of contemporary problems affecting developing countries. Typically, student researchers would choose a topic (e.g. Overpopulation in Kenya, Civil War in Liberia, Drug Trafficking in Peru) and then begin a semester–long search for information on that topic. Students were expected to access a wide variety of sources including UN documents, U.S. Government documents, NGO reports, and standard secondary sources (books and periodical articles).
As the program ran before documents were routinely posted on the Internet, student researchers often needed to write as many as 50 letters to sources here and abroad to access useful information. Student visits to U.S. and UN document centers, including Lehman College, NYU, and Columbia University were encouraged and commonplace.
Global Research program participants were also required to identify, locate, and correspond with experts on their topics in the U.S. and overseas. An interview with at least one of these experts was also a project requirement.
Finally, after identifying the nature and scope of the problem facing a particular country, student researchers offered their own solutions based upon months of their research.
At its inception, the Global Research Program attracted enough applicants to fill two sections. Each applicant was asked to complete an essay on how he or she would benefit from the program. The verbal score on the school’s entrance exam was also used as selection component.
Although the program became widely known for it’s rigorous requirements, Dr. Maskin received a good deal of correspondence over the years from former students who had utilized in college the skills they learned with him as high school freshman.
The program ran from the late 1980s to the late 1998. Dr. Maskin moved on to teaching AP History and retired in 2005.
