MCNAIR LEGACY PUSHES SCHOLARS TO DREAM BIG 2009
South Carolina native Ronald E. McNair perished three decades ago in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, but his name and legacy in education remain significant.
The McNair Scholars Program, which honors the memory of the late Lake City astronaut, provides a way to help students reach their potential.
High-achieving, first-generation undergraduate students from low-income backgrounds and under- represented minority populations receive extensive preparation for graduate school.
“Every day, thousands of outstanding disadvantaged McNair students across the country and scores more McNair alumni work to live by Ron McNair’s example,” said Cheryl Fortner-Wood, director of Winthrop’s program, which began in 2009.
A five-year renewable TRiO grant from the U.S. Department of Education funds the initiative. The $226,600 in annual federal money provides assistance to 30 students, mostly from Winthrop. The university contributes more than $85,000 in cash and in-kind matches.
McNair Scholars complete a paid summer research experience, work with a faculty mentor, take practice graduate school admission tests, receive help with preparing and paying for graduate school application fees and travel, and present their findings at conferences. The program serves as another example of Winthrop’s commitment to fostering undergraduate research opportunities and providing high-impact practices for students.
YEAR WINTHROP’S MCNAIR PROGRAM BEGAN.
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STUDENTS SERVED SINCE PROGRAM BEGAN.
MCNAIR MILESTONE
In 2016, Ashton Brock ’10 became Winthrop's first McNair Scholar to earn a Ph.D.
Brock received a chemistry degree in May at the University of Virginia and has entered its three-year Clinical Chemistry Postdoc Fellowship program. That training will prepare her to become a director of a lab that analyzes bodily fluids for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
Her success is exactly what program founders hoped would happen when they created the initiative.
Brock worked with her faculty mentor, Chemistry Professor Takita Sumter, in investigating how a particular protein can signal a pathway that can lead to cancer. “Under her guidance, I learned a lot of techniques, such as bacterial cell culture, protein electrophoresis and protein expression, but more importantly, I learned how to think like a researcher, how to communicate like a researcher, and I also learned how to give back to others, because that’s what Dr. Sumter did for me,” Brock said.
The Columbia native won three awards for her research — the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students travel award (2010), National Ronald E. McNair Scholars Research Symposium award (2011) and the American Chemical Society Leadership award (2011). And at Winthrop, she met her fiancé, Ronald Nelson Jr., a fellow McNair Scholar who also worked in Sumter’s lab.
“I’m more motivated now to influence other budding scientists,” Brock said. “I had a great example of how to inspire and help because back then, they inspired and helped me.”
Holly Rittenberry placed a Motus baseball sleeve fitted with a sensor on Assistant Athletic Trainer Seth Faulkner. Rittenberry used the sleeve, which measures stress placed on the elbow, in her research focused on high school baseball pitchers.
Barb Yeager, McNair executive support specialist, shared with Ashton Brock, right, a painting she made in honor of Brock’s newly earned Ph.D.
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FIRST-GENERATION MCNAIR SCHOLARS AT WINTHROP.
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MCNAIR PROGRAMS IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
The McNair Scholars program has made Brock feel like she’s contributing to something bigger than herself. “This is extremely important but often overlooked, especially at 19 or 20 years old,” she said. “This program affected me in a tremendously positive way and has helped me become more confident in my abilities as a researcher. My fellow scholars and I still keep in touch, which shows how important and influential we were for each other.”
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