For more than a decade, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program/Summer Research Opportunity Program has helped minority, low-income or first-generation college students pursue graduate school.
This weekend marked the 15th anniversary of the programs being run in conjunction with each other.
"We just celebrated 15 years of service at MSU," said Omara Rivera-Vázquez, a graduate assistant and program instructor. "The theme of our anniversary was celebrating scholarly engagement, career achievement and personal enrichment."
Funded by the MSU Office of the Provost, the Summer Research Opportunity Program began in 1986. Open to non-MSU students and current students during the summer, racial ethnic minority students may apply to be a part of the program, which provides them with research opportunities and exposure to graduate school work.
The federally funded Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program began at MSU in 1989, with the summer program shortly added to it. All Big Ten schools and the University of Chicago carry the program. A student who is a part of this program is automatically enrolled in the summer research program.
MSU's McNair program will only take MSU undergraduate students, usually in their junior or senior year, who are first-generation college students and may be classified as low-income status or are students with a disability.
Candidates go through a rigorous application and interviewing process in order to be chosen for the program, said Nettavia Curry, coordinator of the programs.
"They must be a high achieving undergraduate student with a tremendous amount of promise," Curry said.
From January to November, students are enrolled in a test preparation course, attend workshops and seminars about graduate school preparation, interact with faculty in the department they wish to pursue and are able to tour various graduate schools in the country.
"The various workshops and seminars focus on research writing, mentoring and graduate school funding," Curry said.
McNair student and psychology senior Tonisha Shanks said she learned a lot of information in the past months that helped her focus on getting into a good graduate school.
"The program exposed me to conferences, allowed me to put together power point presentations for a roundtable - things I would have never being exposed to if I just matriculated at the university," Shanks said.
Latoya Winters, a kinesiology and psychology senior, said she learned how to do extensive research.
"It helped me by guiding me to research different programs, it taught me to make contacts in the area which I want to pursue, it exposed me to schools physically by having me do tours and departmental visits," Winters said. "Anyone who can participate should definitely do it."
