Hope Sands Selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and Awarded Summer Research Internship

Congratulations Eastern Washington University student Hope Sands! Hope 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. They are selected for their promise as scholars and commitment towards attaining a PhD.

Hope is a junior majoring in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology and Artifact Conservation, as well as majoring in Philosophy. Hope is an Honors student and a member of Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi, honor societies at EWU. She was selected to present at the Western Regional Honors Conference on “Exploring the Physical Realm of History Through the Holocaust.” In the Summer of 2019, Hope traveled abroad for a two-and-a-half week program, the Summer Institute on Diversity, Inclusion and the Holocaust, hosted by Hanze Honors College in the Netherlands. Hope said the institute taught her how to critically think in tough situations and how to act not as a bystander but as an active participant in the fight for social justice.

She has already completed fall and winter courses preparing to be a McNair Scholar and is currently enrolled in EWU McNair’s Research Methods and Analytic Writing courses, on top of her regular classes. This will not only strengthen her skills for graduate school, but also set the groundwork for her summer research internship to study Fort Spokane under the mentorship of Dr. Brian Buchanan. Hope will head artifact cataloging, researching, and interpreting past uses of the artifacts as they may have been used by the Fort’s military inhabitants.

We’re so excited to have Hope join us as a McNair Scholar!