Mentor

Lucia Roussa Selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and Awarded Summer Research Internship

04/23/2021 by Tennyson, Bryn Leave a Comment

Lucia Rousa McNair Scholar Announcements 2021

Congratulations Eastern Washington University student Lucia Roussa! Lucia has been selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and awarded a summer research internship. McNair Scholars must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, are first generation college students and low-income and/or underrepresented students, and are selected for their promise as scholars and commitment to attaining a PhD. Lucia is dual majoring in Environmental Science and Biology. Her research interests include phycology, marine microbiology, and conservation science in coastal marine ecosystems. She is currently working with Dr. McNeely on her project investigating the relationship between freshwater algal abundance and diversity through analyzing the eutrophication of wetlands in Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. For this summer, Lucia has been selected for an internship with the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Sciences (CICOES) where she will be studying jellyfish in the Puget Sound area!

We're so excited to have Lucia join us as a McNair Scholar!

Seth McCullough Selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and Awarded Summer Research Internship

04/22/2021 by Tennyson, Bryn Leave a Comment

Seth McCullough McNair Scholar Announcements 2021 (1)

Congratulations Eastern Washington University student Seth McCullough! Seth has been selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and awarded a summer research internship. McNair Scholars must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, are first generation college students and low-income and/or underrepresented students, and are selected for their promise as scholars and commitment to attaining a PhD. Seth is majoring in Biology with an emphasis in Environmental Science. His interests and research focuses are on restoration ecology and how climate change is affecting relationships within ecological communities. Seth is currently a research assistant in his mentor, Dr. Justin Bastow’s lab working on EWU’s prairie restoration project. For his EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, Seth will expand on the project and investigate how prairie restoration and biochar amenities affect carbon sequestration within the soil.

We're so excited to have Seth join us as a McNair Scholar!

EWU McNair Alumna Angélica García-Macías Accorded Ford Fellowship Honorable Mention

04/13/2021 by Jaeger, Corinne Leave a Comment

Angelica Garcia Macias Ford Foundation HM

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Angélica García-Macías! The Ford Foundation found Angélica's application to their pre-doctoral fellowship particularly strong and wanted her to recieve special recognition on their Honorable Mention List. This is commendable, for while Angélica was not one of the 75 recipients of the fellowship, her application stood out near the top amongst 2,228! Angélica graduated in 2020 with a major in Political Science with an emphasis in Pre-Law and minors in Spanish and Chicano Studies. In 2020 she was acknowledged for her strong academic record and demonstration of outstanding leadership qualities with the Frances B. Huston Award. She was accepted by four graduate programs and began the Political Science PhD program at the University of California, Irvine in Fall 2020 with full funding.

Angélica's research focuses on Latinx community involvement in politics and solutions to increase Latinx political participation. For her 2018 EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, she studied housing discrimination in the Latinx community with the mentorship of Dr. Martín Meráz García. Then in 2019, she was awarded a summer research internship at MIT. There, under the mentorship of Dr. Charles Stewart III, she researched the electoral behavior of the Latiné community.

EWU McNair is so proud of Angélica's continued accomplishments and we're excited to see what she does next!

EWU McNair Scholars Present their STEM Research and Experiences

02/02/2021 by Jaeger, Corinne Leave a Comment

Despite COVID-19, EWU McNair Scholars have persisted through their virtual research internships during the summer of 2020 and now are presenting their research throughout the year. In addition to Ashley Destin and Rachael Pentico presenting at the Murdock College Science Research Conference in the Fall of 2020, three McNair Scholars have presented within their departments at EWU so far in 2021.

Darlene Gilroy, a second year EWU McNair Scholar, presented her research on, “Chemical Weathering of Deposits from the 1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption and its Effect on Stream Water Chemistry," to the Geology Department in early January. Darlene has been mentored by EWU McNair Faculty Mentor Dr. Carmen Nezat for two summers of research. Darlene is currently finishing her senior year at EWU as well as applying to multiple graduate schools across the country.

EWU McNair Scholar Mori Williams was recently featured in a video on the EWU Biology Department's website where he discusses his EWU McNair Summer research in detail. With the support of his EWU McNair Faculty Mentor, Dr. Camille McNeely, Mori took samples at the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge to determine concentrations of microcystins from cyanobacteria in wetlands. He is still compiling data and will present his findings this spring at the EWU Symposium. In the video, Mori also discusses his long term goals to become an environmental scientist with an emphasis in toxicology so he can focus on ways to reduce and remove toxins from our waters. Mori has applied to 7 PhD programs and 3 Masters programs and is currently applying for a fellowship.

Rachael was also featured in a video on the EWU Biology Department's website and shares great research opportunities where she shares examples of research within the department, including her EWU McNair research project under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Brown: Differences in Plant Soil Feedbacks with Respect to Slope Aspect. Rachael's findings in this project suggest that slope aspect influences plant-soil feedback. This insight can help with invasive species management in endangered ecosystems such as the Palouse Prairie Ecoregion. Rachael is now hard at work completing her graduate school applications to schools across the country!

We're so proud of all of our EWU McNair Scholars. It's been amazing to see how hard they've worked given all the challenges of the last year. We're excited to see where each of them goes next. Keep your eyes on the EWU McNair website and facebook page in the coming months to see as these fantastic scholars get accepted into graduate programs!

EWU McNair Scholars Present at Murdock College Science Research Conference 2020

01/27/2021 by Jaeger, Corinne Leave a Comment

Despite COVID-19, EWU McNair Scholars have persisted through their virtual research internships during the summer of 2020 and continued to present their research throughout the year. This last fall, two EWU McNair Scholars presented at the Murdock College Science Research Conference. This Northwest specific undergraduate conference focuses on sharing and advancing new knowledge in the natural sciences created or discovered through collaborative faculty-student research. Attendance at this conference is by invitation only. The two presentations from our McNair Scholars were:

Rachael is now hard at work completing her graduate school applications. Ashley will continue on another year in her studies and apply to graduate school in the fall of 2021. We're so excited for both of these scholars and their next steps towards attaining their PhDs!

EWU McNair Scholar Julianna Pruneda-Martinez Completes Summer Research Internship

11/18/2020 by Tennyson, Bryn Leave a Comment

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Julianna Pruneda-Martinez for completing her EWU McNair Summer Research Internship! Under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Winer in the EWU Department of Education, Julianna researched mathematics education through the review of two texts: Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching practices in Grades K-5 by DeAnn Huinker and Victoria Bill and Making Number Talks Matter: Developing Mathematical Practices and Deepening Understanding, grades 3-10. This research has further encouraged Julianna to dig into what’s working and what’s not working in math education, especially for Latinx students.

Julianna is currently continuing her work towards her major in Math Education and building her resume and experience for both her teaching certificate and preparing for graduate school. We’re confident that Julianna will make great strides in the field of education. Many thanks to Dr. Michael Winer for his thoughtful mentorship. To learn more about Julianna and her research, check out her EWU McNair webpage.