{"id":1605,"date":"2018-02-15T11:10:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T17:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2018-02-15T15:06:02","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T21:06:02","slug":"opportunities-now-impact-for-life-st-olaf-mcnair-scholars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/2018\/02\/opportunities-now-impact-for-life-st-olaf-mcnair-scholars\/","title":{"rendered":"Opportunities now, impact for life: St. Olaf McNair Scholars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Tiara Davis \u201918 with Assistant Professor of Social Work and Family Studies Lisa Moore<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The TRIO McNair Scholars Program<\/a> is a graduate school preparatory program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and sponsored by St. Olaf College. The federally mandated goal of McNair is to increase the number of low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students who participate in undergraduate research, graduate with a B.A., and immediately enter and complete graduate school, obtaining the highest degrees in their fields.<\/p>\n

St. Olaf stands out because it is one of just 10 liberal arts colleges among 158 McNair schools nationwide. St. Olaf competes well for funding, driven by the diversity of its students and the opportunities it provides scholars. Yet federal funding hasn\u2019t kept pace with demand. At St. Olaf, 30\u201340 students apply yearly for 10 open positions. Nationally, funding is 13 percent less per scholar than it was 16 years ago, and the number of schools supported has been cut by 25 percent since 2012. Currently federal funds support 63 percent of scholars\u2019 summer research stipends at St. Olaf.<\/p>\n

By expanding support, St. Olaf can safeguard the impact McNair provides participants across disciplines. Sixty-two percent have enrolled in or completed master\u2019s degree programs and 14 percent are pursuing Ph.D.s, outpacing federal program goals of 40 and 10 percent respectively.<\/p>\n

For social work and family studies majors, McNair provides qualitative research and policy experience, mainstays of their field, along with earning master\u2019s degrees. As these Oles often go on to serve disadvantaged communities, providing them with the best start now can add to their impact.<\/p>\n

\n
These scholars are very self-motivated \u2014 some work three-to-four jobs \u2014 and get great research done. I want these scholars to catch the eye of that principal investigator in graduate school \u2014 as research assistants their tuition will be paid and their networks made tighter with advocates.<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n

\u2014 Assistant Professor of Social Work and Family Studies Lisa Moore<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThese scholars are very self-motivated \u2014 some work three-to-four jobs \u2014 and get great research done,\u201d says Assistant Professor of Social Work and Family Studies Lisa Moore. \u201cI want these scholars to catch the eye of that principal investigator in graduate school \u2014 as research assistants their tuition will be paid and their networks made tighter with advocates. These opportunities are hard to
\nfind without experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sonam Palmo ’19 working in a chemistry research lab<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tiara Davis \u201918 wants to help youth access leadership opportunities early in public education, a calling strengthened by her practicum as a social work probation officer in Faribault, Minnesota. With Moore, she began shaping a new line of research to investigate how activism impacts leaders and their families across generations \u2014 from the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives
\nMatter. It\u2019s a way to see her vocation through new light.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany personal issues teens grapple with arise from social ones like poverty, racism, sexism, and family dynamics,\u201d says Davis. \u201cThe youth I work with suffer for a lack of opportunities. Giving them chances to lead early can help.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the age of eight, pre-med chemistry major Sonam Palmo \u201919<\/a> and her family left Tibet in search of better schooling in India. Initially living in a refugee camp in Nepal before three years in India, her family moved to the U.S. Now at St. Olaf as a McNair Scholar, she researched with Associate Professor of Chemistry Dipannita Kalyani, and then shadowed providers at a Tibetan hospital in one of the largest Tibetan refugee settlement camps in northern India.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I want to be a doctor because I\u2019m very passionate about medicine and helping other people,\u201d says Palmo. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be here if I didn\u2019t get help from other people \u2014 I want to pass it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love about undergraduate research is that you give students ideas and direction. But a lot of it is them telling you what they\u2019re discovering, what they\u2019re thinking, and posing questions,\u201d says Moore. \u201cI really believe in this type of learning. Every student should have an opportunity to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The TRIO McNair Scholars Program is a graduate school preparatory program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and sponsored by St. Olaf College. The federally mandated goal of McNair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1287,"featured_media":1650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/files\/2018\/02\/011b.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7vnBG-pT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}