GVSU receives $1.3 million grant to fund McNair Scholars Program

Grand Valley received a five-year, $1.3 million grant to fund a TRIO McNair Scholars Program that will prepare first-generation and low-income, or underrepresented students for doctoral studies.

The U.S. Department of Education grant will fund annual cohorts of about 34 Grand Valley students who show great interest in research and earning doctoral degrees. Susan Mendoza, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, said recruitment will begin this fall and McNair Scholars will begin their program next summer.

"They will engage in undergraduate research as a way to better understand what it means to become a Ph.D.," Mendoza said. "Scholars will be paired with faculty mentors who supervise and support their research. Scholars will present at academic conferences, prepare for the graduate school application process and the challenges of graduate school."

Mendoza serves as the principal investigator for the program; Rachel Powers, professor of chemistry, is the co-principal investigator. Powers said her motivation to be involved stems from personal experience as a first-generation student and struggles to make career plans.

"I have no doubt that with a mentor, I could have discovered my interests in research and the possibility of graduate school much sooner," Powers said. "This is what fuels my motivation in the program."

Amber Sackett was a McNair Scholar who graduated from Grand Valley in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in French and minors in Middle East studies and Arabic. Sackett is now a doctoral student at the University of California Los Angeles studying French and Francophone studies. She said her research centers on "the other" in French society and what it means to be French.

While at Grand Valley, Sackett said her college experience proved different from her peers who were not first-generation students, especially learning to navigate the university to find resources and services. Sackett found a faculty mentor in David Eick, associate professor of French, who recommended the McNair Scholars program to her. 

McNair Scholars spend a summer conducting research with their faculty mentors. Sackett's project focused on the French encyclopedia and its portrayal of Islam and Arabs.

"McNair helped refine my existing academic and professional skills, while simultaneously addressing areas that I needed to develop, like scholarly writing," she said. "I felt confident applying to graduate schools because we developed all the materials for a competitive graduate dossier in the program."

The McNair Scholars Program is one of six, federally funded TRIO programs at Grand Valley; participants are either first-generation college students with financial need, or students who are underrepresented in their academic discipline at the graduate level. Learn more about Grand Valley's program at gvsu.edu/ours/mcnair.