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| McNair Scholars Class of 2011 with Director Cathi Eagan (right), Dean of the University Graduate School James C. Wimbush (center, back), and Program Founder Carl McNair (center, front). |
“It was a wonderful year,” Director Cathi Eagan said. “All of our graduating students were accepted into graduate programs, and many have received amazing funding opportunities to further their studies.”
This year graduate students Esther Uduehi and Isak Nti Asare received the McNair Scholar of the Year Award. Esther will be studying at Oxford University in England next year on a Rhodes Scholarship and Isak recently received the Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Award, funded by the Woodrow Wilson National Foundation.
The McNair Director’s Award, an award for a student who went above and beyond the guidelines of the McNair Scholars Program, went to Jaycee Bingham. Jaycee applied for the most large, external fellowships this year.
“Applying for grants like with the Ford Foundation is a huge amount of work,” Eagan said, “and Jaycee applied for five of these.”
Also attending was Carl McNair, brother of Ronald E. McNair, namesake of the program, and President of the McNair Foundation, who flew in just for the event.
“This was the same day he was supposed to fly down to see the NASA space shuttle lift off the next day. He told NASA that he had a prior commitment, so they arranged to have him fly back out the next morning at 6am so he could make it in time for the launch,” Eagan said. “That’s how dedicated he is to these students and this program.”
The goal of the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program is to prepare low-income, first-generation, and minority undergraduates for graduate study at the doctoral level. The program began with 14 programs in 1987, and it now comprises 200 programs across the country and in Puerto Rico, including four McNair Programs in Indiana. McNair Scholars is part of TRIO, a group of federally-funded college opportunity programs, administered by the U.S. Department of Education.
McNair Scholars Class of 2011
Adrienne Anderson, graduating with a B.A. in Psychology. Accepted to graduate program in Clinical Psychology at the University of Dayton with funding.
Jaycee Bigham, graduating with B.A. in Spanish and Anthropology; certificate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Accepted to doctoral program in Cultural Perspective and Comparative Education at the University of California Santa Barbara with funding.
Gregory Ryan Briles, graduating with a B.A. in American Studies and History minor. Plans to apply for doctoral programs in American Studies and American Culture this fall. Working with Americorp the coming year.
Robin Coleman, graduating with B.A. in African American and African Diaspora Studies and a minor in Fine Arts (Studio art with concentration in ceramics). Accepted to graduate program in Africana Studies at Cornell University with funding.
Desiree Cossyleon, Graduating with a B.A. in Neuroscience and Spanish with minors in Linguistics and Chemistry. Desiree is a Wells Scholar and a Lugar Scholar Recipient. Desiree applied and was accepted into several neuroscience graduate programs, but she decided to accept a teaching post with Teach for America. After Teach for America, Desiree will be pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience.
Magortu Emmanuel, graduating with a B.A. in Biology and African American and African Diaspora Studies with minors in Public Health and Chemistry. Accepted to the graduate program in public health at Tulane University in Louisiana.
Shannon Utam Moses, graduating with B.S. in Kinesiology and Dance with a focus in the Anthropology of Dance. Accepted into the one-year graduate program of Performance Studies , with $40,000 funding, at New York University’s Tisch School, the #1 ranked school in the world for performance studies.
Isak Nti Asare, a Wells Scholar, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science and Linguistics and a minor in African Languages. Accepted to graduate program in Development Studies at the University of Oxford in England. 2011 Elvis J. Stahr Distinguished Senior Award. Finalist for the 2011 Rhodes Fellowship. Named the 2011 Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship recipient (The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), a fellowship worth $44,000/year for graduate study.
Kimberly Sanders, an Adam Herbert Presidential Scholar, is graduating with a B.A. in Sociology and African American and African Diaspora Studies. Accepted to the graduate program in African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University with funding.
Kayla Scroggins, graduating with a B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in History. Accepted to the graduate program in History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington with funding.
Nathaniel Shannon, graduating with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. Accepted to the doctoral program in the Cognitive Division of the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago with funding.
Nathen Steininger, graduating with a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures, Religious Studies, and Sociology and a minor in Psychology. Accepted to the graduate program in the School of Social Work at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.
Esther Uduehi, Wells Scholar, graduating with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Mathematics. Accepted to the graduate program in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford in England. While at IUB, Esther has been named a Richard G. Lugar Scholar, received the Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis Scholarship and the Elvis J. Stahr Distinguished Senior Award, and has served as Vice President of IU’s Board of Aeons. Named a 2011 Rhodes Fellow.
Alexandria White, graduating with a B.A. in Sociology. Accepted to the graduate program in Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education at Ball State University with funding.
Ariana Zarate, graduating with a B.S. in Public Health. Accepted to the graduate programs in public health at Indiana University Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis with funding.
