Eastern's TRIO McNair Program 2020-2021 Overview
Congratulations and thank you to all the EWU McNair scholars, faculty mentors, staff and other supporters who continued to work hard together throughout the challenges of 2020-2021. Our EWU scholars benefited from faculty-mentored research experiences, scholarly activities including workshops, seminars, and academic conferences, and presented their experiences and research in virtual spaces. Remote learning technologies allowed us to once again meet or exceed our goals to provide research and scholarly activities, have one third of new scholars in STEM, strong enrollment in first year of graduate school, and a majority of students persisting into the second year of graduate school as outlined in the Eastern McNair grant proposal. We submitted our Annual Performance Report (APR) to the Department of Education in December 2021 (highlights below), which shows that EWU McNair continues its ongoing success. This is accomplished through a carefully designed Plan of Operation informed by research, best practices, and years of successfully preparing first-generation, low-income and/or underrepresented scholars to succeed in doctoral programs. And we try to make it fun!
On this page, you will see numbers that quantify our program's success, but more importantly, you will have a chance to celebrate our scholars and their remarkable accomplishments over the last year. We're still thriving through challenging times, and we have so much to celebrate!
Below highlights are from Eastern's 2020-2021 Department of Education Annual Performance Report (submitted December 2021) showing the actual percentage achieved with the approved target number in parentheses.
Highlights of 2020-21 Reporting Year
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- Percent of Current Scholars Engaging in Research and Scholarly Activities: 92% (Target 85%)
- Percent of New Scholars Majoring in STEM: 38% (Target 30%)
- Enrollment in Graduate School in Fall after EWU Graduation: 86% (Target 60%)
- Continued Enrollment in Graduate School: 91% (Target 70%)
- Two Scholars Attained PhDs: Dr. Samantha DeAbreu and Dr. Andrew Pereira
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EWU McNair Program Process Model
Objective Targets and Percentages Achieved
The Logic Model below was created as an overview of the Plan of Operation that was submitted in the last Department of Education TRIO McNair grant competition by Eastern's former McNair Director, Dra. Christina Torres García (click article at right to read about Dra. Torres García's contributions to McNair, and what she's doing now!).
For the 2021-2022 year, taking over for Dra. Torres García is Interim Director, Cynthia Dukich, MFA, who has been with EWU McNair for more than twenty years and led this year's Annual Performance Review. Cynthia offers McNair Scholars warm support, a comprehensive understanding of undergraduate requirements, awareness of resources on and off campus, and familiarity with graduate programs. She also teaches writing classes and provides one on one coaching to prepare McNair Scholars for scholarship and graduate school applications, GRE testing, and academic publishing. Additionally, supporting Cynthia is new academic advisor Cori Jaeger, who joined the McNair staff full time in Fall 2021 after two years as a Graduate Student Assistant. Cori holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MEd in Elementary Education, and her work at McNair connects to her commitment to moving towards equity and justice.
Graduate Student Assistants Bryn Tennyson and Liina Koivula maintain the office and web presence, recruit scholars, and help with day-to-day operations, proofreading, and event planning.
The McNair staff, together with outstanding groups of students, mentors, faculty, administration and the larger community, continues to show that education can indeed transform lives!
2021 EWU McNair Scholar Grad School Acceptances
2021 Awards & Presentations
(click on photo for full article)
McNair Scholars Earning Eastern
Bachelor's Degrees in 2021!
Click on names or "Read More" above to go to graduating scholars' individual pages where you can learn more about their McNair research projects, faculty research mentors and graduate school plans
Our Dedicated McNair Faculty Research Mentors are
Key to EWU McNair's Continued Success
Our McNair faculty mentors are the core of the program, as they are the primary guide in research and design, assisting students with graduate programs within specific fields, and introducing scholars to faculty members in graduate programs.
The carefully monitored process of matching McNair scholars with faculty research mentors starts when the student is accepted into the program. The McNair Student Advisors give each participant assistance in identifying supportive and appropriate mentors and in initiating professional connections. The participant’s involvement begins in the pre-application process with the requirement to interview three faculty members. Information from the interviews provides a starting point for the Advisor to discuss with the new participant the potential faculty mentors in the major field of study. Following the discussions with participants, the Director talks with the department chair and the potential faculty mentor before determining a match.
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Click on the "THANK YOU!" box at the left to find our more about our fabulous 2020-2021 faculty research mentors.
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Click on the "THANK YOU!" box at the left to find our more about our fabulous 2019-2020 faculty research mentors.
New & Returning McNair Scholars in 2020-2021
2021 EWU McNair Summer Research Internships
Much like 2020, the 2021 EWU McNair Summer Researchers persevered through unique challenges presented by the global pandemic. These scholars pivoted to online learning during the most crucial years of their undergraduate educations and became McNair Scholars and completed research nearly 100% online. Fortunately, two scholars were able to do in person lab and field work! EWU's McNair Scholars Program ordinarily thrives under a community model, and these scholars missed out on in-person drop ins, shared meals, and our annual Spring Gathering. Despite the circumstances, these scholars worked hard to achieve research benchmarks through the summer, presented at (virtual) conferences, connected with their cohort over Zoom, and began the application process for graduate programs around the country. We could not be more proud to share their research experiences here!
