The McNair Voice

The McNair scholars at Georgia State University have put in eight long and grueling weeks of research now it is time for all of that hard work to pay off. The experiments are over; the interviews have been conducted; and the analyses have been performed. It’s Showtime!!! The scholars will present their research posters on Monday, August 3^rd   in room 480/485 of the University Center from noon to 2:00 pm and they will give oral presentations on their work on Tuesday, August 4^th   in the Sinclair Suite in the Student Center from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm.

The scholars are taking the last few days before the presentations to make sure they are prepared, through mock presentations and meetings with their mentors.

The presentations will be judged and there will be awards given for the best poster and oral presentations.

Good Luck to all the presenters!!!

Last week the McNair scholars elected the officers for the 2009-2010 Student Advisory Board. This marks the first time the officers of the board have been elected by the entire cohort. In the past the McNair Staff picked the members of the board and the board picked its officers. The new officers are Taiwannika Walker, President; Keisha Parker, Vice President; LaTrenda Dumas, Secretary; and Tarey Milton, Coordinator of Volunteer, Public Relations, & Special Events

The remaining non-officer board members were selected by the McNair Staff. These scholars were selected based on their level of participation in the McNair Program this summer and the contributions they could make to the board. The non-officer members are Bianca Islam, Farzana Saleem, and Daniel Smith.

Congratulations to all of the new members of the 2009-2010 Ronald E. McNair Student Advisory Board!!

MAKE IT HAPPEN!!

Mrs. Symone Simmons is the newest member to the Georgia State University’s Ronald E. McNair Family. Mrs. Simmons serves as the program’s Educational Program Specialist. Mrs. Simmons hails from Iowa by way of Chicago. She attended Iowa State University where she earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Psychology. Prior to becoming the Educational Program Specialist for the McNair Program, Mrs. Simmons was the Senior Admissions Counselor/Program Coordinator at Iowa State University. Her job duties included counseling high school students on their post secondary educational options. That will go right in line with what Mrs. Simmons will be asked to do for the McNair Program the only difference is that the students will be undergraduate students that will need to be counseled about post-baccalaureate educational opportunities. Mrs. Simmons has been here for a little more than a month and she has already become a big hit with the scholars partly due to the fact that from her first day she has had an open door policy.

The McNair Program wants to welcome Mrs. Simmons to the family we are fortunate that you are apart of the team.      

The 15^th annual SAEOPP McNair Conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia this year. This is a major change from years past because the SAEOPP McNair Conference has been held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. This year the conference was co-hosted by the McNair Programs at Georgia State University and Morehouse College. The conference started on Thursday with a powerful theatrical performance entitled Peaches by the world renowned Progress Theatre. The performance was held at the Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel located on the historic Morehouse College campus. During the day on Friday the McNair scholars had a chance to present their posters. Friday night the gap between the past and the present of the McNair Program was bridged with an alumni reception. The purpose of the reception was for the new McNair scholars to get advice and words of wisdom from former McNair scholars who understand the challenges that the new scholars are facing. On Saturday it was time for the scholars with shy personalities to leave them at the door because it was time to do oral presentations. A McNair conference would not be complete without a Graduate School Fair. The Graduate School fair at this conference had an added twist. This grad fair did in fact have tables set up where the students could stop by a speak with the recruiters and get information on the schools but the students also had a chance to sit down and have lunch with recruiters from the school they were most interested in. This approach allowed students the chance to get more face time with the recruiters as well as the chance to interact on a more personal level. When Sunday came around most of the scholars were beat from the long days and short nights, but there was still unfinished business that had to be settled. The conference organizers did not want the efforts of the scholars that gave exceptional posters and oral presentations to go unnoticed or unrewarded, so there was an awards ceremony. The highlight of Sunday and perhaps the conference was the keynote speech that was given by Mrs. Cheryl McNair the widow of Dr. Ronald E. McNair.  

McNair scholar Kris Eby has submitted an article to the River Research and Applications Journal for submission. The title of the article is “Spatial variation in the bed texture and source sediments for two uniform reaches of the Fall River in Rocky Mountain National Parks.” Kris is awaiting the selection committee’s final decision. If Kris’s article is selected to be published he will be well on his way to distinguishing himself from his undergraduate peers when it comes to preparing for admittance into a graduate program. Graduate school is designed to train students on how to write articles with the intention of being submitted and published. So if a student has already been through to process before entering a graduate program they are a good ways above the learning curve. The McNair family wants to congratulate Mr. Eby. Way to go man we are proud of you. Keep us posted and let us know when you hear back from the selection committee.   

On Monday, January 20, 2009 Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44^th president of the United States of America. His inauguration was significant for a number of reasons; first, he is the first African American to become president, second he took office in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and third contrary to prior inaugurations Obama did not give a feel good, upbeat speech. Instead, he let the country know that the reason the country is in so much turmoil is because of bad decision making and greed on part of the government and the citizens it represent.  Obama closed his speech by giving the government and the people a charge to help foster a positive change by saying, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” He told the nation that change would not be easy but it was necessary because we are indebted to the ones that have come before us and gave their lives in hopes of a better day.  After hearing Obama speech it made me think of all the people that dedicated their lives to the struggle for change; and I feel like it is my obligation to contribute to the movement of change. As a McNair Scholar I feel like I am a direct beneficiary of the struggles and the dreams of the Civil Rights Movement and therefore I feel it is only right for me to be a part of the movement for change that is taking place now. I charge my fellow McNair Scholars to also take an active role in the movement of change because we are the leaders of tomorrow.

The Georgia State University McNair program took five of its most promising scholars to the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) that was held in Orlando Florida from November 5^th-9^th. This talented group of scholars included Blein McIntyre, Isha Metzger, Amber Wimsatt, Gina Vanagas, Salamatu Barrie.  There were over 3,000 scholars that presented their research at this conference. Isha Metzger won an award for Best Poster for Social and Behavioral Science at the conference.  This is nothing new for Isha because she won the first place prize for her poster at the end of the research program at Georgia State University.

The McNair Program wants to commend these scholars for their hard work and dedication to the program and its goals. Kudos to the future Dr. Metzger!!!

The Ronald E. McNair Program at Georgia State is trying to expand its recruiting efforts in hopes of attracting more perspective scholars. The McNair Program is coming up with new and innovative ways to reach the students around campus. For example, the McNair Program is in the process of filming its own three minute commercial. It is the program hopes that the commercial will do a good job of capturing the essence of the program by showing the McNair Program and scholars in action. The recruiting efforts are not only lead by the McNair Staff but the scholars are playing an integral role in the recruiting campaigns. Cedrick Dortch, one of the McNair Program brightest scholars has had an active role in the recruiting. On October 24^th he single handedly recruiting around five scholars at the Psychology Department Practicum Fair some of which have already came to the McNair office and made inquires. We would like to commend Cedrick for his hard work and diligence. It is the hope of the program that other scholars follow in his footsteps.         

Some of Georgia State’s finest McNair Scholars, Amber Wimsatt and Isha Metzgter will be participating  in the Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB)/Compact for Faculty Diversity Conference in Tampa Florida. The conference will be held from October 22 until October 26, 2008. It is no coincidence that these two brilliant scholars was selected to represent the GSU McNair Program at this conference because they both displayed such a dedication and ambition during the summer research program that warrants such a reward. Amber Wimsatt was awarded the first place prize in the oral competition; Isha Metzgter received the first place prize in the poster competition that was held at Georgia State University at the end of the summer program.

We wish these scholars the best!!!

Georgia State University Research Symposium

The Georgia State University chapter of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program held its first research symposium on Friday, September 12, 2008. The purpose of the symposium was to give McNair Scholars at GSU and programs throughout the southeastern region and beyond an opportunity to present their research in an academic conference setting. There were scholars from 10 different institutions including Georgia State University represented at the symposium. The scholars came from schools as far north as the University of Cincinnati; as far south as the University of South Florida; and as far west as the University of Alabama.

The morning started with a welcome from Mr. Curtis Byrd, Director of the McNair Program at Georgia State University. Shortly thereafter the Symposium kicked into high gear with the poster presentations. There were seventeen posters presented. The posters addressed issues ranging from the Autism epidemic to the low numbers of African American in managerial positions in corporate American. The observers of the posters were given the chance to evaluate the presenters in an effort to give feedback to participating scholars. 

During lunch a panel of graduate recruiters discussed the do’s and don’ts of preparing to enter a graduate program. The panel was headed by Tomalei Vess of Duke University, and included Kharen Fulton of Emory University, Brett Locklear of NC State University, Dr. George Robbins of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Kedrick Perry of University of Virginia. The panel engaged the audience by detailing personal accounts of their educational journey. The panel touched on issues such as funding for a graduate education and the application process. For example, the panel told the scholars that institutions should be paying them to get a Ph.D. and not the other was around. It was apparent that after the panel the scholars felt more prepared to tackle the requirements needed to enter into a graduate program.  

The oral presentations were held after lunch but the scholars showed no signs of slowing down. There were thirty-nine oral presenters. The oral presentations addressed issues ranging from the portrayal of African Americans in the media to the U.S. involvement in the crisis in Dafur. All of the oral presentations were informative and relevant to the issues facing the world today.

The oral presentations had gotten the scholars hungry again.  The scholars and the graduate recruiters partook in a graduate dinner. At the dinner the scholars were seated by disciplines and the recruiters were also seated at the tables based on their areas of expertise. The recruiters were able to talk to the students on a more personal level during the dinner. The recruiters told the scholars exactly what their graduate programs expected when they were considering admitting applicants and they also told them what they needed to do to meet those expectations.

The headline of the night came after dinner when Dr. Robert L. Belle, Jr. delivered the keynote speech. Dr. Belle is the Director of the SREB-AGEP Doctoral Scholars Program and for many years has been a champion for the McNair Program as well as the other TRIO programs. Dr. Belle informed the scholars about the storm that is taking place in our society today.  He insisted that it is going to take savvy, intelligent people to help our society weather the storm. He ended his speech by giving each scholar a charge to go on and obtain a Doctoral degree so they can be instrumental in weathering the storm.