A program aimed at making science and math more interesting for minority students is turning some heads. Michigan State University president Lou Anna Simon praised the "Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation" or LSAMP Thursday at an event at Lansing Community College.

"I just want to underscore that this is a team sport for all of us," said Simon.

The program encourages underrepresented groups to embrace science, technology, engineering and math. Now, four state universities and nine community colleges in Michigan are joining forces to strengthen participation.

"We need to have diverse views in research. We need to know if we discover something it's going to affect our own community. Unless we have our people there, or our different multicultural students there, we're not going to have that input," said Rodney Singleton, LSAMP participant.

Singleton is a first-year master's student studying electrical engineering. He joined LSAMP through MSU, thanks to his mentor. Singleton said his mentor asked him if he had ever thought about research. Singleton said, "No. Honestly, but he ended up talking me into it. And I ended up joining up with LSAMP and liked it ever since. It actually caused me to pursue my master's degree and also my Ph.D. because I realized that I really wanted to do research."

"So if you are actually working side by side with a faculty doing cutting edge research, it really greatly strengthens reason to be there, as opposed to, "Well I just came here and I'm taking these classes and I'll see where it goes," said Thomas Wolff, MSU dean of engineering.

It's the sense of connection and preparedness that LSAMP hopes will help produce more future professionals like Singleton.

See the video about the program here.