TRIO Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program

Eastern Washington University

Jaeger, Corinne

EWU McNair Scholar Alexis Guizar-Diaz Awarded Teaching Assistantship at PSU

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Alexis Guizar Diaz Fellowship Award 2021

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Alexis Lisandro Guizar-Diaz. Alexis has been awarded a Teaching Assistantship at Portland State University with full funding for three years. He was accepted to the Sociology PhD program at Portland Statue University and plans to attend there in the fall of 2022.

 

Alexis graduated this spring with a major in Sociology and a minor in Philosophy. His key research interests are political economy, rural & agrarian communities, and Latina/o/x populations. He is a member of the American Sociological Association and the Co-Chairman of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán. Last year he received a Orlinda H. (Rogel) Luiten Scholarship. He was also a recipient of a 2020 Eastern Washington University Summer Research Internship through the McNair Scholars Program. For this Alexis conducted research in Washington’s Columbia Basin under the mentorship of Dr. Edwin Elias from the EWU Department of Race and Culture Studies, culminating in his paper Indentured Servitude in the 21st Century? A Case Study on Agricultural Labor Employment in the Columbia Basin. He has continued to do research throughout the 2020-2021 school year on Designing Positive Workplace Interventions for Washington Farmworker: Listening to Farmworkers Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Click here to read more about Alexis and his research.

 

The EWU McNair staff are so excited for Alexis and we know he'll do amazing things at whichever graduate program he decides to attend!

EWU McNair Scholar Darlene Gilroy Awarded Graduate Student Assistantship at PSU

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Congratulations! Darlene Gilroy, Awarded Graduate Student Assistantship at Portland State University

Congratulations EWU McNair Scholar Darlene Gilroy! Darlene was awarded a graduate student assistantship at Portland State University. This spring Darlene was accepted by San Jose State University's Geology Masters program with funding and accepted by Portland State University's Geology Masters program. Darlene plans to attend Portland State University in the fall of 2022.

 

Darlene has completed two summer internships with EWU McNair. Her research focuses on the chemical weathering of volcanic sediments under the mentorship of Dr. Carmen Nezat. Darlene has presented on her research at the 2019 Murdock College Science Research Conference in Tacoma WA, the 2020 WE-STEM conference at EWU, and the EWU Virtual Symposium. More recently she presented Chemical Weathering of Deposits from the 1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption and its Effect on Stream Water Chemistry at the virtual Baylor McNair Research Conference and to EWU's own Geology Department. Many thanks to Dr. Nezat for her outstanding mentorship.

In addition to being awarded two McNair Summer Research Internships here at Eastern. Darlene has also been recognized for her excellence with grants and scholarships. Last spring Darlene was awarded the Penelope A. Jones Scholarship and the HOME Program Scholarship. This fall, Eastern's Geology Department awarded Darlene the Fall 2020 Alumni-Funded Undergraduate Research Grant, to assist with her McNair research.

 

Keep up the amazing work Darlene! EWU McNair is confident that you will succeed in graduate school and have a great impact on our world. Read more about Darlene's research on her EWU McNair webpage!

EWU McNair Scholar Hope Sands Completes Summer Research Internship

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Hope Sands Summer res 2020

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Hope Sands for completing her 2020 EWU McNair Summer Research Internship! For her EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, Hope studied Fort Spokane under the mentorship of Dr. Brian Buchanan. Hope's project looked at the historical past of Fort Spokane in an attempt to understand the archaeological and geographical significance of the Fort's construction. Previous archaeological projects at this location have focused more so on the Fort itself, rather than the Fort and its surrounding environs. Hope graduated in the Spring of 2020 from Eastern Washington University with a major in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology and Artifact Conservation, as well as a major in Philosophy. Hope was an Honors student and a member of Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi, honor societies at EWU.

 

Click here to read more about Hope and her research.

 

Hope is taking a year off from school to explore field work in anthropology and plans to submit applications to graduate school starting Fall 2022. EWU McNair is so excited for Hope. We're confident that she will succeed in graduate school and have a great impact on our communities.

EWU McNair Scholar Mori Williams Awarded Opportunity to Attend Society of Toxicology Program

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Mori Williams Society of Toxicology Award 2021

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Mori Williams! Mori was given a Committee on Diversity (CDI) Undergraduate Diversity Program Student Award to attend the Virtual Undergraduate Diversity Program (UDP) at the SOT 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting. This included registration for the annual Society of Toxicology (SOT) annual meeting, a three-week special program, and a mentor assignment. Mori attended virtually in March.

 

This year Mori was accepted by the Toxicology PhD program at Oregon State University as well as by South Dakota Mines (SDM) in their Masters in Atmospheric & Environmental Science Program where he received a graduate student assistantship and will attend Fall 2022.

 

Mori's research interests focus on finding types of toxins in bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, and the ocean to find solutions for reducing those toxins. He is majoring in Environmental Science with an emphasis in Chemistry and a minor in Japanese. For his 2020 EWU McNair Research Internship, he worked with Dr. Camille McNeely in researching cyanobacteria in local areas such as the Spokane River and the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. Mori has presented his research to the Biology department, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, and the EWU Symposium.

 

The EWU McNair staff are so excited for Mori! Click here to read more about Mori or his research.

EWU McNair Scholar Mori Williams Awarded Graduate Student Assistantship

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Mori Williams Awarded GSA SDM

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Mori Williams! Mori has been awarded a graduate student assistantship from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Mori was accepted by South Dakota Mines (SDM) in their Masters in Atmospheric & Environmental Science Program. This is in addition to an acceptance by the Toxicology PhD program at Oregon State University. Mori's research interests focus on finding types of toxins in bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, and the ocean to find solutions for reducing those toxins. Mori plans to attend SDM starting the fall of 2022.

 

Currently Mori is majoring in Environmental Science with an emphasis in Chemistry and a minor in Japanese. He has worked in an Organic Chemistry lab at Eastern Washington University, which involves saponification, NMR readings, and reflux methods. For his 2020 EWU McNair Research Internship, he worked with Dr. Camille McNeely in researching cyanobacteria in local areas such as the Spokane River and the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. Mori has presented his research to the Biology department, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, and the EWU Symposium.

 

The EWU McNair staff are so excited for Mori! Click here to read more about Mori or his research.

EWU McNair Alumna Dra. Christina Torres García Invited to Write for Oxford Research Encyclopedias

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Congratulations to EWU McNair Alumna and EWU McNair Director Dra. Christina Torres García who was invited to write an article about Chicana feminist epistemology in higher education for Oxford Research Encyclopedias to be included in their Race and Education issue. In addition, Dra. Torres García has been hard at work at research and writing in multiple other areas, including: DACAmented students’ Testimonios about their Educational Journey Against the Backdrop of Racist Nativist Discourse in Washington State, submitted to the Journal Race, Ethnicity, and Education; Being Brown in the time of Trump: The Tactics of Dehumanizing (Im)migrants which is now undergoing peer-review at the University of Arizona press; ongoing co-research with EWU McNair Alumna Dr. Laura Zamudio-Orozco examining how race, gender, and class shape STEM research mentor-mentee relationships; and in coordination with the Pell Institute and the Council for Opportunity in Education, is researching first-generation, low-income students' challenges and obstacles during the COVID-19 and how this affects their college aspirations.

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Chicana feminist epistemology in higher education is an extensive manuscript that suggests democratizing and diversifying the Western Canon of thought in higher education research. Using the work of decolonial philosophers, Dra. Torres García illustrates how Westernized Universities’ epistemological foundations present a form of Eurocentric fundamentalism. She presents an evolution of the contributions of Chicanas from the 19th to the present and describes how their work has been excluded from the Western canon of thought in higher education. She shows how Chicana feminists have constructed their own epistemic foundations, methodologies, and how they are disrupting the boundaries of how knowledge is created. Because the Latinx population is increasing rapidly, giving rise to more Hispanic Serving Institutions around the nation, her research is critical. It ultimately recommends incorporating Chicana feminist epistemologies into educational research.

 

Dra. Torres García's current research with Dr. Zamudio-Orozco examining mentor-mentee relationships stems from gaps in the field.

Mentoring is a widely studied concept presented as a vital component for undergraduate students’ research and their graduate school journeys.  However, little research examines the effectiveness of mentoring experiences from the perspective of first-generation, low-income students.”

They aim to bring students’ testimonios to the forefront to illustrate how they struggle to navigate the intersections of race, class, and gender and how this shapes the power dynamics within the mentor-mentee relationships.

 

Dra. Torres García's research with the Pell Institute and Council for Opportunity in Education to find out the short-term and potential future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the decisions and life experiences of low-income and first-generation college students uses mixed methods involving national surveys to increase our empathetic understanding of student actions, and outcomes for this student population and higher education. Two of our graduating McNair Scholars, Alexandria Coronado and Lizeth Bañuelos, have also supported this research. Both completed their own McNair research projects during their EWU McNair Summer Research Internship and into the 2020-2021 school year on related topics. Alexandria, with the mentorship of Dr. Lindsey Upton, completed the research paper: Impacts of COVID-19 on Food and Housing Student Resources at Universities in the State of Washington. Lizeth, with the mentorship of Dr. Aryn Ziehnert, completed the research paper: First-Generation Students' Academic Experience: The Role of Institutional Supports during a Pandemic. Both students have been accepted to multiple graduate programs and will attend graduate school starting the fall of 2021!

 

EWU McNair is incredibly proud of all of Dra. Torres García's work. She not only exemplifies outstanding research, but also incorporates a social justice lens in all of her work with an eye to improve higher education and better meet the needs of all students. Like so many of our EWU McNair alumni, Dra. Torres García gives back to her community both in her everyday work and in her research. Recently EWU McNair had the chance to showcase similar approaches by other McNair alumni in our Social Justice in Research Panel. Click here to learn more about EWU McNair’s other alumni accomplishments! Our EWU McNair Scholars continue to show the power of McNair on students, higher education, and changing the world!

 

Congratulations again to Dra. Christina Torres García!