Mentor

EWU McNair Scholar Rachel Silverthorn Published in American Journal of Criminal Justice

04/07/2022 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

EWU McNair Scholar Rachel Silverthorn graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She went on to attend Florida International University’s PhD program in Criminal Justice, with full funding. This spring, she will complete her Masters degree in Criminal Justice, and continue through the program for her PhD. She is on schedule to begin writing her dissertation in summer 2023.

In March 2022, a paper Rachel co-wrote with her faculty, Revisiting the Association Between Attachment to Parents and Adolescent Substance Use: Conditional Effects of Parental Disapproval, was published by the American Journal of Criminal Justice. Additionally, in her position as a research assistant, she is currently involved in 4 ongoing projects, 3 of which will be submitted for publication in the next year.

During her time as a McNair Scholar, Rachel was mentored by Dr. Kayleen Islam-Zwart on her Summer Research project The Effects of Pregnancy on Jury Perceptions. Rachel also presented research at EWU’s 2020 Virtual Symposium on Gender differences in confidence in jury decision making. Her goal is to become a professor and continue research within the criminal justice system so she can impact policy in order to reduce bias and increase equitable treatment.

Congratulations, Rachel, on your academic achievements and publication!

19 EWU Students Recruited for McNair’s 2021-2022 Cohort

03/03/2022 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

19 Students Recruited for 2021-2022 Cohort On February 18, EWU's McNair Scholar Program selection committee met to review student application packets. The federally-funded TRIO Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program at EWU selects motivated and talented juniors and seniors who are first-generation and low-income college students, and/or from groups underrepresented at the doctoral level to introduce them to academic research and provide them with effective strategies for getting into and graduating from PhD programs. Selection committee members included Dr. Judd Case and Dr. Margaret O'Connell from the Biology department, Dr. Miguel Novella from the Chicana/o/x studies program, Dr. Stephen Tsikalas from the Geology department, and Dr. Kayleen Islam-Zwart from the Psychology department, along with Cynthia Dukich and Cori Jaeger of the EWU McNair Scholars Program. They read letters of recommendation and personal statements, reviewed transcripts and academic plans, and carefully determined the strengths and needs of each candidate.

McNair's recruitment process begins on the first day of Fall Quarter, when the McNair staff connects with current and past mentors, supportive faculty, and everyone in the EWU community who can help ensure that the EWU student body knows about the services and support McNair offers. Bryn Tennyson, who has served as our STEM GSA for the past two years, gave presentations in STEM and other classes to sophomores and juniors, who would be eligible in 2021, and distributed flyers all over campus.

The McNair Scholars Program was invited by Associate Dean Nydia Martinez to present at a Chairs and Directors meeting of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences which yielded an increase of student interest from these fields. Two information sessions were presented to students in EWU's Honors Program, and we offered introduction and advising meetings via Zoom for students who were limiting their time on campus.

McNair staff also solicited nominations from faculty and staff. We want to extend our gratitude to all the faculty who nominated students, including Dr. Majid Sharifi, Dr. Gloria Baynes, Dr. Michael Conlin, Dr. Joseph Lenti, Dr. Carmen Nezat, Dr. Jillene Seiver, and Dr. Yves Nievergelt, and many more who may not have formally nominated a student but did encourage them to head our way! Thank you too, to the numerous faculty who took the time to write thoughtful letters of recommendation for our scholars.

This year McNair is developing and strengthening our partnerships with EWU's CAMP (College Assistant Migrant Program) and Passport to Careers Program. The College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) is a federally funded program designed to support students from migrant and seasonal farm worker backgrounds during their first year of college. All CAMP students will be eligible for the McNair Scholars program once they have the correct amount of credits completed. The Passport to Careers program helps former foster youth and unaccompanied homeless youth prepare for and succeed in college. They are sharing the news about McNair’s resources to all of their students. Thanks to both of these programs for supporting McNair! We hope that by collaborating we can better serve the students in all of our programs.

Once a student has been nominated or reaches out to McNair, McNair staff follow up with one-on-one meetings to learn about each student’s goals, determine eligibility, and walk them through the many benefits of McNair, such as a paid summer research internship, waivers for application fees for graduate school, guidance on securing funding for graduate school, and regular advising and workshops on how to prepare for and apply to graduate school. McNair Staff met with as many as 40 students throughout the recruitment process and had email correspondence with over 70 students. While some students may not have been eligible or decided not to pursue McNair, all were offered thoughtful advising on the path to reach their goals. McNair has many resources that they can pass along to any student, such as a rubric for writing statements of purpose (the essay you write to get into graduate school) and lists of summer research internships across the country. We find that the good will that this creates often contributes greatly to the recruitment process and overall awareness on campus of McNair Resources. Well over 100 staff hours went into recruiting and retaining McNair Scholars.

We are thrilled to report that all recruited applicants who have been participating in our Winter Scholarly Identity Course will be continuing in the program and preparing for their Summer Research Internships. Our new cohort includes students studying biotechnology, dentistry, economic science, gender women's and sexuality studies, history, horticulture, international relations, mechanical engineering, philosophy, political science, and psychology.

EWU's McNair Scholars Program extends our appreciation again to all the faculty on the selection committee, those who nominated and encouraged students, and the CAMP, Honors, and Passport Programs! We couldn't do it without you!

EWU McNair Scholar Seth McCullough Completes Summer Research Internship

11/18/2021 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

EWU McNair Scholar Seth McCullough worked with Dr. Justin Bastow in his Summer Research Internship focused on The Effect of Biochar Soil Amendments on Soil Food Webs in Palouse Prairie Restoration. The internship prepared him for graduate school by providing field researcher experience, wet lab skills, and communication skills, all of which are necessary for success at the graduate level. He learned how to develop his own research project, generating and addressing specific questions and hypotheses. Seth hopes that the results from his research will help with future decision-making surrounding EWU’s prairie restoration project. His results can also be used as baseline data to track the efficacy and progress of EWU’s restoration project in the long-term.

Seth experienced a unique challenge due to COVID-19 protocols: all of the doors were locked to the science buildings, with no professors on campus. To navigate these challenges, Seth learned to pre-plan extensively before sampling events, making sure he had access to all of the equipment he would need. In doing so, he developed strong communication and networking skills by contacting the many people required to gain access to the proper rooms in the science building.

Putting his research experience and findings in his own words, Seth says:

I learned the importance of understanding community composition when working on restoration projects. I learned about how below ground food-web composition can influence above ground productivity. Regarding my specific research, I found that biochar soil amendments significantly increased nematode abundance, soil moisture retention, and pH within the soil at EWU’s prairie restoration project. Soil moisture retention and pH levels increased to conditions similar to what is found at local prairie remnants. Nematode functional group composition did not shift to being similar to the functional group composition that is found at local prairie remnants, suggesting that community structure changes on a large time scale compared to soil abiotic properties.

His next step is completing the manuscript for his research to submit for publication. Since working on soil food-webs he has become more concerned with how below ground and above ground food-webs influence one another and how they are connected. This research also sparked his interest in studying how top-down control can influence the community composition within an ecosystem.

To undergraduate researchers in similar fields, Seth recommends taking advantage of all the opportunities that come your way. He offers a reminder to stay passionate about your research, and apply for any research positions or internships that you can. They are invaluable learning opportunities that give you a competitive edge in the graduate school market.

EWU McNair Scholar Lucia Roussa Completes Summer Research Internship

11/18/2021 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

EWU McNair Scholar Lucia Roussa worked with Dr. Julie Keister of the University of Washington School of Oceanography on her Summer Research Internship project, Measuring from the Sky: Methods to Quantify Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia labiata) Using Aerial Photographs, in collaboration with CICOES. She contributed to research on the effect that climate change is having on jellyfish populations in the Puget Sound ecosystem. Specifically, she worked on the development of a protocol that can be followed by any researcher using image processing to collect data.

The first week of her internship, which began with remote work, included a coding bootcamp. While initially concerned about her ability to master this new skill, Lucy ultimately learned not to be afraid of something new and challenging. She came away confident that she can learn anything – a great lesson to take with her to grad school.

The last week of Lucy’s internship was in person, aboard the research vessel Rachel Carson in Seattle, which required a quarantine before sailing. For six days, Lucy and the research team conducted laboratory and field work involving Moon Jellyfish sampling.

Lucy was one of only 13 interns selected for this project. She credits her participation in the EWU McNair Scholars program for encouraging her to apply for this opportunity, and for assistance along the way with application feedback and time management support.

Lucy hopes her research and leadership in her field will come to have a global impact.

Any biological research expands our database of knowledge we have about how the world works.

Lucy encourages undergraduates interested in STEM research to remember that they are probably more qualified and competitive than they may think, and reminds them not to disqualify themselves before they have applied for an opportunity! She says that getting involved with research was a game-changer that shaped her pursuit of science. Experience in the field and in the lab helped her develop a clearer sense of what kind of work she wants to pursue as a future graduate student and beyond.

EWU McNair Scholar Ashley Destin Completes Summer Research Internship

11/05/2021 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

EWU McNair Scholar Ashley Destin has had the opportunity to participate in two research projects during her time with McNair, both with Dr. Judd Case. While each research project was very different from the other, both align with Ashley’s passion for improving targeted care for cats. She notes that much of what we know about cats now comes from research done with other animals. Ashley’s mission is to shift the focus to the cats themselves, contributing to our understanding of cats and improving the ways we care for them.

For Ashley’s first research project Size Scaling in the Skull of North American Felids as Adaptations for Prey Acquisition, she and Dr. Case measured close to 50 felid skulls. Ashley worked with a local large cat rescue, Cat Tales Wildlife Center, and was able to include data on a mountain lion and an African lion. Despite some limitations on the project due to COVID-19, Ashley was proud to present research at multiple virtual conferences.

Ashley’s second research project with Dr. Case, Feline Red Blood Cell Shape and the Impacts of Cytauxzoonosis, was even more influenced by COVID-19. Initially, the plan was to research feline anemia, comparing humans and healthy cats. Unable to acquire the blood samples that they had lined up, the project changed significantly. What they did notice while looking into anemia was a variation in the blood cell shape within the felid family, which led them down an entirely different research path. While well-noted, the shape variation hasn’t been studied extensively. The rest of the project was spent looking at a parasite that uses these blood cells to proliferate and cause severe infection in domestic cats. COVID-19 protocols didn’t directly affect this phase of research, yet it’s the reason they ended up focused on this specific issue.

This research is ongoing, as Ashley and Dr. Case continue to look at other blood parasites to see if a trend appears. There is currently very little research into the blood cell shape variation and the possible impacts to cat care. Ashley is looking at taking this project to graduate school. Understanding the variation and its impacts has the potential to improve how we care for our cats.

Ashley has this advice for undergraduate researchers in her field:

Be flexible, but don’t give up on what you really want. Science is a big enough field that it’s possible to study what you want, it might just take some weaving to find your way there.

EWU McNair Scholar Shawn Dufrene Completes Summer Research Internship

09/27/2021 by Jaeger, Corinne Leave a Comment

Photo of Shawn Dufrene next to text congratulating her with red textured border.

Congratulations Eastern Washington University student Shawn Dufrene! Shawn has completed her summer research internship. Shawn is a senior majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on Africana Studies with a minor in History. She is studying African American History as well as what it means to be white in America. Her goal is to become a professor of African American Studies. In 2019 she presented historical research for the Phi Alpha Theta regional conference and the EWU Symposium. She is a volunteer docent at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and an officer in EWU’s Black Student Union. For her 2020 EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, Shawn researched Malcolm X’s racial identity development under Dr. Okera Nsombi, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies.