Tag Archive for: McNair Scholars Program

McNair Scholars program accepting nominations

McNair Scholars: Nominate potential grad students

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There is a reason why the coordinators of SOU’s McNair Scholars Program reach out to faculty members at about this time each year, seeking nominations of promising students to fill out the university’s next cohort of potential graduate school candidates. Most participants since the McNair program began at SOU in 2003 have stood out in the classroom and been steered by their professors toward the U.S. Department of Education program.

“If you know any undergraduate students … who you think may have academic potential and may want to go on to attend graduate school after completing a bachelor’s degree, please mention the program to the student and/or send an email to McNair@sou.edu to nominate that student to the SOU McNair Scholars Program,” said Naomi McCreary, coordinator of the SOU program.

Nomination emails should include the student’s name and email address. Students can be from any academic major, must have completed at least two terms of college and can enter the program as sophomores, juniors or early in their senior years. McCreary described McNair as “a specialized graduate school preparatory program of activities and instruction that the participants engage in over a minimum of a calendar year.”

The SOU program offers one-on-one guidance from faculty mentors as it helps participants complete their undergraduate degrees, enroll in graduate school and prepare for doctoral studies. Scholars complete an eight-week research internship in the summer, attend weekly seminars to help prepare them for testing and graduate school applications, and travel to national McNair conferences and graduate program visitations.

The program is named for Dr. Ronald E. McNair, who was a member of the Challenger space shuttle’s seven-person crew that met a tragic end in a 1986 explosion. As a tribute to his achievements, Congress and the McNair family in 1989 aformed the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program – administered by the U.S. Department of Education – to assist young people in both following McNair’s path and taking the initiative to chart their own courses.

The grant helps underrepresented and first-generation undergraduate students from low-income backgrounds to prepare for research-intensive doctoral programs. However, McCreary urged faculty members to nominate any students they feel may have the ability and desire to complete graduate school, and eligibility will be sorted out during the application process.

The McNair program at SOU received word in August that it has been renewed by the Department of Education for a new, five-year grant cycle. The SOU program has provided an intensive research experience and graduate school preparation to more than 160 students since its inception in 2003. Under the new grant, 28 students each year will share the prestige of being McNair Scholars.

SOU McNair program receives grant

SOU McNair Scholars program awarded nearly $1.4 million from U.S. Education Department

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Southern Oregon University its fifth Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement grant. The award of $274,983 annually will total $1,374,915 over the five-year grant cycle, from 2022 through 2027.

The grant helps underrepresented and first-generation undergraduate students from low-income backgrounds to prepare for research-intensive doctoral programs.

The program is named for Dr. Ronald E. McNair, who was a member of the Challenger space shuttle’s seven-person crew that met a tragic end in a 1986 explosion. As a tribute to his achievements, Congress and the McNair family formed the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program to assist young people in both following McNair’s path and taking the initiative to chart their own courses.

Since its inception in 2003, SOU’s McNair Scholars program has provided an intensive research experience and graduate school preparation to more than 160 students. Under the new grant, 28 students each year will share the prestige of being McNair Scholars.

The SOU McNair Scholars program serves students who have the desire to continue their education beyond the undergraduate level from all academic disciplines. Scholars complete an eight-week research internship in the summer, attend weekly seminars to help prepare them for testing and graduate school applications, and travel to national McNair conferences and graduate program visitations.

The track record of those who have completed SOU’s McNair program is far above the national average for education continuation among undergraduate students. The SOU program has a 95 percent undergraduate graduation rate, and 98 percent of participants who have completed the McNair program, earned a bachelor’s degree and submitted graduate school applications have ultimately received admission to at least one graduate-level program. Of those who have been admitted to graduate programs, 97 percent have chosen to attend.

Alumni of SOU’s McNair program have received more than $7 million in grants, scholarships and fellowships to support their graduate educations. More than 70 graduate degrees – including 15 doctorates – have been earned by SOU McNair alumni.

The SOU McNair program is directed on an interim basis by Associate Provost Dan DeNeui, and the program coordinator is Naomi McCreary.

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SOU commencement speaker Erim Gomez

SOU alumnus and former McNair Scholar to headline 2021 Commencement

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Erim Gómez was a McNair Scholar and first-generation college graduate at SOU, a co-director of what is now the SOU Environmental Resource Center and an active member of the SOU Alumni Association Board of Directors. On June 12, the newly minted Ph.D. and assistant professor at the University of Montana will also serve as SOU’s commencement speaker.

Graduates and others participating in SOU’s live-streamed commencement ceremony will hear about Gómez’s compelling personal story, his heartfelt mission to encourage under-represented and other students to pursue and achieve their higher education dreams, and his passion for environmentalism and the sciences.

Erim GomezGómez is proud of his family’s farm-working and immigrant roots, and that both he and his brother Edrik – who died in a 2008 helicopter crash while serving as a wildland firefighter – were part of the prestigious McNair Scholarship program at SOU. Gómez received his doctorate in environmental and natural resources science from Washington State University last fall. He was hired at the University of Montana in August 2020 as an assistant professor in the school’s highly regarded Wildlife Biology Department.

“I challenge you to not fear failure and to take risks,” Gómez is expected to tell SOU’s new graduates on Saturday. “I learn a lot more from my failures than my successes. If you don’t occasionally fail, you need to set larger and higher goals. 

“Your SOU degree will and has already opened doors for you,” he will suggest. “Make sure that you keep the doors open for those who come after you.”

Gómez will anchor the list of speakers at this year’s SOU commencement, a hybrid day of activities that will include an in-person, live-streamed opportunity to walk across the stage at Raider Stadium, a wide-ranging online ceremony and a variety of events in which individual programs will recognize the accomplishments of their graduates.

The in-person photo opportunity at Raider Stadium – at which no guests will be allowed – will begin at 9 a.m. The virtual ceremony – live-streamed on the SOU Commencement webpage and the university’s social media platforms – will start at 2 p.m.

This will be SOU’s second consecutive year of virtual commencement ceremonies, a result of the global pandemic. The online events will include a life-streamed ceremony with Gomez and other speakers, Zoom parties and private, dedicated social media engagement. A number of the university’s academic programs and divisions also have created virtual or hybrid events that celebrate their graduates’ accomplishments.

About 1,100 degrees are expected to be conferred.

Gómez received his bachelor’s degree in biology from SOU in 2007, then went on to earn his master’s degree and doctorate in natural resources sciences from Washington State. He won national recognition in 2011, when he was awarded the Bullitt Foundation’s Environmental Fellowship – which offers $100,000 over two years of graduate study for students focusing on environmental issues in Washington, Oregon or British Columbia. Gomez used the fellowship to study Palouse Prairie amphibians in eastern Washington.

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Program for non-traditional students receives five-year grant

SOU awarded $1.6 million to help first-generation and non-traditional students

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The TRIO-Student Support Services (SSS) program at SOU, which helps non-traditional students succeed and graduate, has received a five-year, $1,627,990 federal grant renewal to keep the program in operation through 2026.

The U.S. Department of Education grant will provide $325,598 per year in funding for SOU’s Success at Southern/TRIO Program, which is limited to 190 students per academic year and has served more than 1,500 since 1994.

The SOU program offers services including academic advising, tutoring, personal education plans, career guidance, preparation for graduate programs and financial aid information. The program is free and intended for first-generation, low-income, disabled or other non-traditional students.

Students must apply to participate in the Success at Southern/TRIO-SSS program and those who meet eligibility requirements are invited to interviews about their educational goals, career ambitions and academic barriers. Students who are accepted into the program must each attend a mandatory orientation session and an initial personal education plan meeting, then become eligible for all of the Success at Southern/TRIO-SSS services.

The federal TRIO programs, which were created following passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965, are intended to help disadvantaged students progress through the academic pipeline from middle school through graduate school. There are currently eight sections of TRIO, and the SOU grant is part of the Student Support Services Program. SOU also participates in the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program – a separately funded TRIO program – which prepares eligible undergraduate students for eventual doctoral studies.

TRIO’s programs help students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those with disabilities, to negotiate obstacles that may hinder their academic progress.

nominations for McNair Scholars program

Promising students sought for SOU McNair Scholars Program

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SOU faculty and staff are asked to help identify and nominate students for the next cohort of SOU’s McNair Scholars Program, which has prepared eligible undergraduate students for post-graduate education since 2003.

A majority of past participants in the program have said they were encouraged by faculty or staff to apply, so the program’s director is seeking nominations of students who have shown academic promise and an interest in graduate school. Prospective McNair Scholars should be sophomores, juniors or early seniors.

Those who wish to be considered this spring for the 2020 cohort must submit their completed application packets by 3 p.m. on May 6.

The SOU program offers one-to-one guidance from faculty mentors as it helps participants complete their undergraduate degrees, enroll in graduate school and prepare for doctoral studies. SOU’s McNair program serves 28 undergraduate scholars each year, and more than a dozen alumni have completed their doctoral programs since the program began 15 years ago.

Student participants in the nation’s 187 currently funded McNair programs are considered “targets of recruitment” for graduate admissions officers. They are offered fully-paid visitation opportunities and often given offers of admission that include all-expenses-paid packages with stipends for living expenses.

Benefits and resources available free of charge to participants in SOU’s McNair Scholars Program include seminars on topics pertinent to pre-doctoral students, advising, tutoring, access to a resource library, help with graduate school applications, travel assistance and more.

The program is named for Ronald E. McNair, who stood up for civil rights as a youth before becoming a physicist and astronaut. He was the second African-American to fly in space, but died in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

The McNair program was initiated in 1989 by the U.S. Department of Education to increase doctoral studies by students from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups.

Those wishing to recommend a student for SOU’s McNair program should send the student’s name, email address and undergraduate major to program director Dee Southard at McNair@sou.edu.

SOU-Brook Colley McNair graduate

McNair program changed the life of SOU faculty member and alumna

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Mention the name Brook Colley (’07) around the SOU campus and students reply with delight, quickly sharing stories of her warmth, approachability and whip-smart lectures.

After graduating SOU with degrees in sociology and political science, Colley attended the University of California-Davis, where she received her doctorate in Native American Studies. She returned to SOU in fall 2015 as a fully minted assistant professor.

Colley says the McNair Program at SOU changed the course of her life.

“I never thought I would go to college, then when I was here at college, I thought at best I’d get a bachelor’s degree,” she said. “Even though both my parents have graduate degrees, I had other challenges that made it seem unlikely that I would pursue an advanced degree.”

The beginning of a journey
While at SOU, one of Colley’s instructors noticed her academic curiosity and suggested she apply to the McNair Program.

“We talked about Ronald E. McNair,” Colley said. “I remember being in first or second grade and watching the Challenger incident happen. When I learned more about McNair, I was inspired by him, by the fact that he did more than forward his own professional development. He also spoke to others and asked for advocacy and support from the social institutions themselves in order to bring everyone up. That kind of community responsibility was already part of my ethics, but the McNair Program gave me a concrete way to apply this thinking to my education and career.”

Colley was accepted into the McNair Program and started in 2006.

“I came in with a great cohort of students; we had a lot of social justice-oriented community advocates in our group,” she said. “We learned about everything from how to dress for a university interview to how to ask for strong letters of recommendation.

“We had this terrific group of mentors who supported us on every front. I learned so much, and I use that knowledge even now as a teacher and mentor.”

Colley said the McNair Program makes moving through the unfamiliar landscape of universities somewhat easier. “McNair helps you recognize your own potential and all the ways you can negotiate the best path to the future you want,” she said.

McNair program paves path for doctoral candidates
“Our McNair scholars are an amazing group of students,” said Dee Southard, Ph.D., the director of SOU’s Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. “They go on to Ivy League schools, they win national awards, and they give back to their communities. It’s a joy working with these students.”

The McNair Program is a federal TRIO program funded at 151 institutions across the United States and Puerto Rico by the U.S. Department of Education. The program, Southard said, offers a pathway to increase the number of doctorate holders from groups who are in financial need, or who are traditionally underrepresented in graduate schools.

“McNair graduates are an example of what people can achieve when given the opportunity,” she said.

Eligible students who enter the program are given the academic support they need to enter graduate programs in their chosen discipline. The success rate of McNair scholars is impressive.

“Generally, half the people who get into a Ph.D. program will drop out,” Southard said. “But McNair scholars who are admitted into a doctoral program are significantly more likely to complete a Ph.D.”

The program is named for astronaut Ronald E. McNair, Ph.D., who died in the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986. McNair was an African-American scientist nationally recognized for his work in the field of laser physics. Growing up in segregated South Carolina, he overcame a childhood of crushing poverty and discrimination to earn a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“McNair was the second African-American astronaut in space, and he orbited the planet 122 times,” Southard said. “He was very dedicated to encouraging young people to pursue higher education.”

Southard and faculty mentors work to prepare qualified undergraduates for entrance into Ph.D. programs in their chosen fields of study. They receive GRE preparation, study research methods and learn how to write research proposals. By the end of the program, students are motivated, independent researchers with work published in the program’s scholarly journal.

“We encourage them to apply to outside summer research internships, and they often get what they go after,” Southard said.

The support and preparation pays off for the students.

“A majority of our students are accepted on their first application to graduate school,” Southard said. “When they receive those graduate school offers it makes an indescribable difference in their lives. It’s a joy.”

Over the past decade, SOU’s McNair scholars have had great success. Ninety percent have either completed a graduate degree or are currently attending a graduate-level program.

“I’m so proud of our graduates,” Southard said. “Right now we have 44 McNair alumni in graduate programs, and 59 graduate degrees completed by our alumni.”

A bulletin board in the McNair office is filled with postcards from McNair graduates studying or working nationally and internationally. Southard points out cards from Washington, D.C., Hawaii, China, and Australia.

“One of the things I enjoy as a McNair director is that I stay in touch with these students, and that is very rewarding,” Southard said.

Reprinted from the Spring 2016 issue of The Raider, SOU’s alumni magazine

SOU Ronald E. McNair

Students sought for SOU McNair Scholars Program

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SOU faculty members and others are asked to help identify and nominate promising undergraduate students to become part of the legacy of Ronald E. McNair, who stood up for civil rights as a youth before becoming a physicist and astronaut. He died in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

SOU’s McNair Scholars Program, which has prepared eligible undergraduate students for post-graduate education since 2003, is seeking students for its 2019 cohort of scholars. Prospective McNair Scholars should be sophomores, juniors or early seniors with academic potential and an interest in attending graduate school.

The SOU program offers one-to-one guidance from faculty mentors as it helps participants complete their undergraduate degrees, enroll in graduate school and prepare for doctoral studies. More than a dozen SOU McNair alumni have completed their doctoral programs since the program began 15 years ago.

“When asked how they heard about the McNair Program, the majority of past scholars reported that they were encouraged by SOU faculty or staff members to apply,” said Dee Southard, an associate professor and director of SOU’s McNair program. “I am again asking for help in reaching potential McNair Scholars and connecting them with the resources that the program offers.”

Student participants in the nation’s 187 currently funded McNair programs are considered “targets of recruitment” for graduate admissions officers. They are offered fully-paid visitation opportunities and often given offers of admission that include all-expenses-paid packages with stipends for living expenses.

Seminars on topics pertinent to pre-doctoral students, advising, tutoring, access to a resource library, help with graduate school applications, travel assistance and other resources are available free of charge to participants in SOU’s McNair Scholars Program.

The program is geared toward undergraduate students from underrepresented and disadvantaged segments of society, but those criteria should not be a concern for those recommending students as McNair scholars. Each nominee will be contacted and provided program details. Even those who are not eligible will be directed toward resources that are helpful for all students considering graduate-level studies.

Those wishing to recommend a student for the program should send the student’s name, email address and undergraduate major to Southard at McNair@sou.edu. The application packet for students interested in being part of the 2019 cohort is available online. The deadline for submission of completed packets to SOU’s McNair office in Susanne Homes Hall is 3 p.m. on Oct. 31.

The McNair program was initiated in 1989 by the U.S. Department of Education to increase doctoral studies by students from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups. It honors McNair, who received his doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was the second African-American to fly in space. SOU’s McNair program serves 28 undergraduate scholars each year.

SOU program for under-represented and disadvantaged scholars receives funding

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NEWS RELEASE (available online at https://goo.gl/9eegW6)
(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University’s McNair Scholars Program, which has prepared under-represented students for post-graduate education since 2003, has been selected for another five years of funding despite talk at the national level of reducing support for the McNair program.
“The decision to continue to fund the nation’s McNair Scholars programs at this point in time illustrates a continuing commitment from our elected federal officials and the U.S. Department of Education to support undergraduate students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds and who have demonstrated strong academic potential,” said Dee Southard, an associate professor and director of SOU’s McNair program.
A letter of notification from the U.S. Department of Education indicated that SOU’s funding proposal received 108 out of 110 possible points from evaluators. The SOU program was approved for a grant of $243,878 per year for the five-year grant cycle – a total of just over $1.2 million.
Ongoing support for the nationwide program – which is offered on more than 200 college and university campuses – has been in doubt because of the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the U.S. Department of Education. The funding notification guarantees the status of SOU’s McNair program through 2022.
“The vast majority of the student scholars who participate in the SOU McNair program graduate with their bachelor’s degrees from SOU and then continue directly on, entering into and successfully completing highly competitive graduate level programs of study,” Southard said.
The McNair program was initiated in 1989 by the U.S. Department of Education to increase doctoral studies by students from underrepresented and disadvantaged segments of society. It honors physicist and astronaut Ronald E. McNair, who was the second African-American to fly in space. He died in 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after launch.
SOU’s McNair program – formally known as the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program – serves 28 undergraduate scholars each year. The application period for the 2018 cohort is Oct. 2 through Nov. 1 of this year.
The SOU program – which offers one-to-one guidance from faculty mentors – is intended to help promising scholars complete their undergraduate degrees, enroll in graduate school and prepare for doctoral studies. Six SOU McNair alumni have completed their doctoral programs since the program began 14 years ago.
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About Southern Oregon University
Southern Oregon University provides outstanding student experiences, valued degrees, and successful graduates. SOU is known for excellence in faculty, intellectual creativity and rigor, quality and innovation in connected learning programs, and the educational benefits of its unique geographic location. SOU was the first university in Oregon—and one of the first in the nation—to offset 100 percent of its energy use with clean, renewable power. It is the first university in the nation to balance 100 percent of its water consumption. Visit sou.edu.