Graduate student Michele Rutheiser began her first day of graduate school with an idea of what it was going to be like — because of the McNair Scholars Program.
Rutheiser is one of 19 students who participated in the program last year. McNair students attend workshops throughout the year and work on graduate-level research projects that they present in a symposium during the summer. Students are paid a $2,800 stipend for their research.
Offered annually, the McNair Program’s aim is to help qualified students prepare effectively for graduate school, McNair coordinator Gail Unruh said.
He added that the program is especially meant to increase education opportunities for low-income students, first generation college students or members of a traditionally underrepresented group in graduate school.
Rutheiser said the program was a good experience, but a lot of hard work.
“Overall, I enjoyed my experience, though many program-related activities made balancing my schedule quite challenging,” she said. “Nonetheless, it was well worth my time and effort.”
The McNair program was named after Ronald E. McNair, who was the second African-American to fly into space and one of six members aboard the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after lift-off in 1986. Funding for the program began in 1988 and has since been offered at universities nationwide, but it was introduced to the University in 1999.
Unruh said a big portion of the program includes optional research projects that students present with the help of faculty advisors. The program is open to all majors, and research topics range from science and mathematics to journalism and psychology. Abstracts from previous projects are now available for viewing at Academic Learning Services.
“The research is really the key to the program,” Unruh said. “In a sense, everything they do there is kind of modeling the work they will be expected to do as graduate students, so it is kind of the backbone to the whole effort.”
Students accepted in the fall will attend workshops in the winter and begin searching for research ideas, he said. But most of the research is done in the summer.
Not only do students get to see firsthand what graduate research is like, but they also benefit from the program in other ways, Unruh said. For example, the program’s workshops assist students in completing graduate school applications and interviewing for graduate school, he said.
He added that graduate schools across the country offer incentives to applicants who have completed the program, such as graduate level tuition awards and GTF positions set-aside specifically for McNair students.
“I was offered full-tuition scholarships and graduate teaching fellowships at two of the universities to which I applied,” former McNair student Diane Teeman said.
Teeman, who is now a graduate student, added that she also received financial assistance in studying for and taking the Graduate Record Exam and waivers in applying to graduate school.
“I didn’t realize how exceptionally advantageous it would be to be a McNair Scholars Program participant,” Teeman said. “It would take pages to tell you all the program has done for me.”