The Geosciences Scholars Summer Institute funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) provides an academic experience within a college setting to African-American and Latino-American high school youth for the purpose of exposing them to the many possibilities afforded by geosciences careers in their future. This specific grant was awarded to Rutgers University-Newark, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and is known as “Opportunities for the Enhancement of Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG)”. The MERI Institute provided the space and equipment for students to conduct soil and water surveys at the River Barge Park Marina. Later on, all students had a chance to tour the Hackensack estuary through a Pontoon boat ride.