Eastern Michigan University's Honors College has received
a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education
worth $1.1 million.
The grant will establish a McNair Scholars Program at
EMU as part of the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate
Achievement Program, which was created to help increase
the number of low-income, first-generation college students
attaining doctoral degrees.
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Knapp |
The program is named for Ronald McNair, one of the astronauts
who died in the Challenger space shuttle disaster of 1986.
McNair was the first in his family to attend college. He
went on to earn a doctorate in physics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
"EMU's McNair Scholars Program will provide significant
support for students who are either low-income and first-generation,
or from underrepresented groups and who intend to pursue
a doctoral degree," said Jim Knapp, director of EMU's Honors
College. "In their junior and senior years, McNair
Scholars will work closely with faculty mentors on undergraduate
research projects that will prepare them for graduate study.
In addition, the program will offer students workshops
and seminars on undergraduate research, professionalization,
and the graduate application process, among other topics."
Knapp said that "the real heart of the program is the
Summer Research Institute (SRI), a 10-week intensive research
experience for McNair Scholars in the summer between their
junior and senior years. The SRI will give students hands-on
research experience prior to the senior year, during which
most students apply for graduate school.
The proposal is a collaborative effort, which includes
contributions from biology, chemistry, teacher education
and the Honors College.
"One of my roles was to research and prepare a statement
of need for a McNair program at EMU," said Gary Hannan,
professor of biology and faculty associate in the Honors
College. "It became very clear that EMU was a perfect
fit to the goals of the McNair program: prepare low-income,
first-generation students for entry into Ph.D. programs. For
example, in 2006, EMU enrolled 1,259 students who were
both low-income and first-generation college students (7
percent of the total student population)."
The DOE grant will provide $220,000 each year for the
next five years and EMU has pledged $96,000, or 43 percent
of the project's overall cost.
