Winter 2001
Volume 3, Number 2
  


Conference connects nation’s
next generation of scholars
By Celena K. Kusch


Since 1992, about 25 percent of the nation’s college graduates enrolled in graduate schools, but a mere 2 percent of low-income graduates went on to postbaccalaureate studies. Such enrollment gaps among bachelor’s degree earners suggest that factors beyond academic achievement may determine who will take the opportunity to continue into graduate school. One Penn State program works to close this gap by introducing students to a wider range of academic experiences.

During 2000, more than 350 low-income, first-generation and/or underrepresented undergraduates from across the country met at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel for the eighth annual McNair Research Conference. There they presented research, established connections, exchanged ideas and prepared to achieve graduate school degrees.

“The annual Penn State McNair summer research conference is a wonderful national forum for bringing together members of the McNair community and their students. Each year, it provides McNair Scholars an environment where they can showcase and share the findings of their research projects, interview with graduate school representatives and discuss with the community at large the graduate education possibilities and challenges in the 21st century,” said Dr. Teresa Tassotti, director of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program and the Talent Search Program and assistant to the associate dean for Undergraduate Education at Penn State.

“There are few conferences now on the national scene that can pull in the culturally diverse 400 to 500 talented undergraduates that we do from all parts of the country at one time and in one location for the sole purpose of allowing them to present their undergraduate research and hear from experts on how to best prepare for graduate school,” she added.

The McNair Research Conference at Penn State is part of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, a national initiative to prepare students who are underrepresented in graduate schools to enter doctoral programs and succeed.

Dr. Ronald E. McNair was a member of the crew of the Challenger space shuttle that was destroyed on launch in the 1986 explosion. First in his family to graduate from college, McNair earned his bachelor’s degree from North Carolina A&T, a historically Black university. He went on to earn a doctorate in astrophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became the first African American to join the space shuttle program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Through this U.S. Department of Education program, McNair still serves as a role model for scholars at more than 150 colleges and universities throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

“Penn State has a commitment through the Office of Undergraduate Education to assist students who are low-income and/or first-generation college students to reach their academic aspirations,” Dr. Cathleen Love, associate dean for academic advancement programs at Penn State, said. “The McNair program focuses on helping undergraduates experience what it is like to do research, so that we can spark their interest in graduate work. Many of the McNair Scholars are students who are underrepresented in graduate programs, so their participation will help make higher education more diverse and inclusive of many different perspectives.”

Penn State’s McNair program enrolls 30 students each year, including five students from Virginia State University, a historically Black institution. Since 1995, 20 of their alumni have also been McNair Scholars through this partnership between the universities. Together, these students maintain a nearly 100 percent graduation rate and 70 to 80 percent enrollment in graduate school directly after college.

For Dr. Michael Radis, assistant director of the McNair program, individual stories — more than statistics — explain the program’s success. He related one story about former student Judy Liu. Penn State’s second McNair alumna to earn a Ph.D., Liu graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in the spring and began work as an assistant professor of civil engineering at Purdue University in the fall.

“She is very bright and certainly would have been a success without joining the program,” Radis explained, “so we asked her how being involved in McNair changed what she saw herself doing in her future. She responded that in engineering, she learned to be trained for a job, but the McNair program offered her another perspective on what you can do as an engineer. When she started doing the research, she loved it. She found that through graduate school she could teach, do research and tell other people what they should be doing in her area of expertise. We are very proud of everything she has achieved.”

As Liu’s example shows, research experience is the cornerstone of the McNair program. McNair Director Tassotti stressed the value of these research projects.

“Typically, most students have few opportunities to engage in scholarly research under the direction of expert faculty during their undergraduate years as our McNair Scholars do,” she noted. “McNair offers the means by which our scholars can begin now, while still undergraduates, to contribute to the knowledge about our world in ways that hold much promise for the future.”

Each summer, the program provides 15 students with a research stipend, allowing them to remain on campus to conduct independent study with a Penn State faculty adviser in their field. At the end of the summer, Penn State students publish their papers in the Penn State McNair Journal and share the results of that research through outreach at the national conference. This year’s conference program featured about 280 oral and poster presentations.

Among them, Penn State’s Kahlil Williams presented data challenging current U.S. drug policy. He analyzed the 100:1 ratio of amounts of cocaine and crack used to determine federal mandatory minimum sentences in drug charges. His findings suggested major policy failings in cost-effectiveness, racial equity and even achievement of stated objectives for incarcerating the most violent offenders. According to Williams, mandatory minimums rely on the amount of the drug — not the facts of the case or position in the hierarchy of dealers — as the sole measure of the perpetrator’s level of violence. He believes this is a public policy mistake, adding, “Quantity is not the best measure of culpability.”

“The program is working really well. It raises student expectations and exposes students to the kind of research they will undertake in graduate school. I’m really impressed with the McNair program.”
Dr. James Eisenstein
Williams’ adviser Dr. James Eisenstein, professor of political science, was one of dozens of Penn State faculty and graduate students who attended the student presentations and offered their support during the conference. After Williams’ presentation, Eisenstein praised the program, commenting that at this conference he had seen things brought out in Williams that he had never seen in him before.

Eisenstein, who works in the area of federal criminal justice, has long been committed to undergraduate research, but Williams was the first McNair Scholar who conducted research under his guidance. This experience has made him a strong supporter of the McNair program.

“It’s wonderful to see students get excited about something academic and intellectual,” Eisenstein said. “The program is working really well. It raises student expectations and exposes students to the kind of research they will undertake in graduate school. I’m really impressed with the McNair program. As someone who studies public policy, I’ve seen a lot of programs that just don’t work, but this one really has a great impact on the student scholars. Kahlil is now thinking about applying for a Fulbright to the Netherlands to study drug policies which are very different from ours and which have their own problems.” After his participation in the conference, Williams continues to express enthusiasm for the graduate school experience.

“Many people feel that graduate school is just a bunch of classes that you take after you get a bachelor’s degree,” Williams noted, “but in reality, it is an environment in which a person can gain great insight into a field of study and contribute to his or her discipline through research. The McNair program not only helped me to realize this, but put me on track to do this.”

According to Radis, the conference itself is a good preparation for graduate work.

“Graduate schools look for experiences,” he said. “They want students who can not only do the research, but present it, as well. An advantage that the McNair Scholars have over other undergraduates who are doing research is that they get to present on a national scale rather than at the local levels that predominate most undergraduate research experiences. Through the conference, students learn presentation skills and gain confidence that will help them in graduate school interviews, and they build a network of scholars that will support them in the future.” Williams agreed.

“The conference showed me that there is a very talented and diverse group of future faculty members and researchers who will make an impact on education very soon,” Williams said. “In terms of my own research, the participants with whom I spoke about my topic gave me different perspectives on my issue [cocaine sentencing policy] and challenged me to analyze facets of my topic I might not have otherwise realized. Furthermore, I was able to make contacts with those who found my topic to be of particular interest or of relevance to their study, so the conference may have enabled me to find colleagues for future research.”

Beyond this academic support and encouragement, the conference also offers experiences that meet some of the students’ personal needs. Radis remarked that for minority or low-income scholars, “finding other scholars who look like them and who have a background like theirs, building that web of contacts is wonderful for the students.”

In his keynote address, McNair’s long-time friend and colleague Dr. Julian Earls, deputy director for operations at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, also recognized the personal struggles and achievements of McNair Scholars. Acknowledging their efforts, he said, “It is an honor to be in the presence of young people who know the value of education.”

Earls encouraged the group to continue to defy the odds that often stand as obstacles to their success in graduate school. Like McNair, Earls said, the students must not be afraid to achieve.

Praising the work of the program named for his friend, Earls emphasized that “the McNair Scholars Program gives people the keys to open doors to arenas that are just startling. It helps them to gain the self-confidence to know that they can achieve anything, and it gives them a new vision of the many opportunities before them.”

The conference itself also promotes future opportunities for McNair Scholars. Along with student presentations, students attend GRE preparation workshops, seminars on the graduate school admissions process and a graduate school fair. More than 50 institutions, representing major research universities and graduate programs nationwide, participated in this year’s fair for recruiting scholars.

According to Radis, McNair Scholars are sought after by graduate programs; more than 150 schools waive the application fees for McNair Scholars, and 15 have established full five-year fellowships available only to McNair Scholars. “The conference allows students to get exposure,” Radis noted. Many of the graduate school admissions representatives who attend the fair stay for the entire conference, making more personal connections with the students through meals and other conference events.

The conference has also been an opportunity for Penn State faculty to meet members of the next generation of graduate scholars. Nearly every year, groups of McNair conference participants from across the nation request departmental visits to meet Penn State faculty in their discipline.

Radis claims that reputation of the student’s achievements is growing, noting that for the first time this year, a department read the preconference abstracts on their own and invited a group of students to meet with University faculty.

Tassotti explained the long-term impact of such progress, saying, “Our program exists to address the underrepresentation of low-income, first-generation students and minority students in not only graduate education, but also in the ranks of college faculty. When our students go on to graduate school and earn their doctorates, they have the opportunity to change the face of academia, as well as the way colleges and universities do business, given our rapidly changing demographics in the new millennium. Through McNair, we are creating not only our next generation of scholars and researchers, but we also help create the next generation of role models for future college students. Such role models will encourage future college students from similar backgrounds to see that they can follow in their footsteps, despite the financial and cultural obstacles and challenges they must regularly face.”

An outreach program of the Academic Advancement Programs





Undergraduate research reaches national audiences through outreach program

In his welcome letter to the more than 350 national participants in the eighth annual McNair Research Conference, Dr. John J. Cahir, vice provost and dean for undergraduate education at Penn State, emphasized the importance of integrating research into the undergraduate curriculum. “We believe that undergraduate research is the key to superior undergraduate education,” he stated.

Dr. Julian Earls, deputy director for operations at the Glenn Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and conference keynote speaker, noted that the faculty contact students receive through undergraduate research makes an impact beyond its academic goals.

“I’d like to give kudos to all the faculty who are not teachers only, but also mentors, coaches and role models for students,” he said. “Too often, we don’t give enough credit to those in education who do so much to bring students toward success.”

This summer, 15 Penn State McNair Scholars conducted research under the direction of faculty advisers from a range of disciplines and colleges. Following is a list of their research presentations from the 2000 McNair Research Conference:

  • Debbie Charles, working with Dr. Margaret Brittingham, associate professor of wildlife resources: “Parental Roles of Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) in Care of Young and Nest Defense.”
  • Jeffrey Ford, working with Dr. William Bahnfleth, assistant professor of architectural engineering: “Testing Three-Dimensional Foundation Heat Transfer Models Against Industry Standard Simplified Heat Transfer Calculation Procedures.”
  • Cory Forer, working with Dr. Colin Flint, professor of geography: “An Interpretation of Hate Groups’ Manifestos as Presented on the World-Wide Web.”
  • Michael Godeny, working with Dr. Richard Ordway, assistant professor of biology: “Characterization of Four Modifiers of the Drosophilia Calcium Channel Mutant Allele, cacTS2.”
  • Marissa Graby, working with Dr. David Yukelson, sport psychologist: “Communication and Specific Feedback in Relation to the Self-Fulfilling Prophesy and Individual Roles in Sports.”
  • Dustin Holloway, working with Dr. Joseph Reese, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology: “Functional Analysis of CRT1, A Repressor of DNA Damage Inducible Genes.”
  • Meng Hui He, working with Dr. Thomas Bernard, professor of crime, law and justice: “Panic Surrounding School Shootings.”
  • LaShawne Long, working with Dr. David Conroy, assistant professor of kinesiology: “Kinesiology: The Significance of the Physical Therapist as a Social Supporter.”
  • Lanik Lowry, working with Dr. William Bianco, associate professor of political science: “Do Members of the U.S. Congress Vote on Veterans’ Issues Based on Their Own Veteran Status?”
  • Franche Pierre*, working with Dr. John Sheridan, administrator, State College Area School District: “The Underachieving Syndrome Among Gifted Children.”
  • Natalie Ragland, working with Dr. Lorraine Sordillo-Gandy, associate professor of veterinary science: “Relationship Between Mastitis and Staphylococcus Aureus in Lactose-Containing Solutions.”
  • Sassy Ross, working with Dr. Clemente Abrokwaa, coordinator for Peace and Conflict Studies: “Gender, Power and the Feminist Discourse: A Cross-Cultural Analysis.”
  • Ken Sagan, working with Dr. Edgar Farmer, associate professor of education: “Employer Driven Education in Post-Secondary Schools.”
  • Patrice White*, working with Dr. Barry Ruback, professor of crime, law and justice: “Spousal Sexual Assault: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Counties Using Rape Crisis Center Data.”
  • Kahlil Williams, working with Dr. James Eisenstein, professor of political science: “Racial Disparity on Federal Sentencing Guidelines in the American Criminal Justice System for Drug Related Offenses.”

*Participant in the Virginia State University/Penn State University exchange partnership program.





From left, Dr. Julian Earls, deputy director for operations at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and McNair Research Conference keynote speaker; LaShawne Long, Penn State McNair Scholar; Dr. Teresa Tassotti, director of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program; and Dr. Michael Radis, assistant director of the McNair program, attend the eighth annual McNair Research Conference, held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.
Kahlil Williams, McNair Scholar, speaks about the impact of the McNair program, saying, “The McNair advisers [Michael Radis and Teresa Tassotti], as well as my research adviser [James Eisenstein] have done an excellent job in preparing me for all aspects of graduate school, including school selection, finding financial aid and what to expect once in graduate school. I believe I will be able to attend an outstanding institution and excel when I get there.”
Penn State’s Marissa Graby was among the McNair Scholars who presented their undergraduate research before a national audience at the McNair Research Conference. She conducted surveys of Big Ten Division I women’s basketball teams to study the role of self-fulfilling prophecy in college basketball. Working with Penn State sport psychologist Dr. David Yukelson, Graby gained the support of Big Ten coaches who encouraged their teams to participate in the study. She reported that this project was a great experience. “My research project was indirectly linked to my major in education and my interest in the world of athletics,” she said. “I plan to study the concept of self-esteem and how it affects students when I enter graduate school.” Graby noted that the McNair conference has increased her confidence in her ability to meet graduate school requirements and has enhanced her urge to continue schooling.
  

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