University of Washington. Columbia. Harvard. Princeton. Berkeley.
That’s a pretty impressive list of universities.
Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the UW’s Class of 2016 features 13 scholars from the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program who will be moving on to attend graduate school at these – as well as several other – outstanding institutions.
McNair, named for the second African American astronaut in U.S. history who served as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Challenger, is a federal TRIO program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. It is designed to prepare undergraduate students for doctoral study through involvement in research and scholarly activities. Participants are either first-generation college students with financial need or from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in graduate education.
“Applying to graduate school, particularly doctoral programs, requires a lot of hard work and perseverance,” said Todd Sperry, assistant director of the UW McNair Program. “The students who are part of this program are already incredibly busy balancing their academic work with undergraduate research, volunteering, internships, jobs and families.”
As McNair Scholars, students receive a research stipend to complete an original research project. They write journal submissions, participate in research conferences and have access to faculty, graduate student and peer mentoring. Students also attend workshops on the graduate school application process and learn about financial aid, scholarships and fellowships.
“Each student joined the McNair Program because they had a dream to attend graduate school,” said Sperry. “The fact that so many were able to achieve their goals is a testament to the hard work that each of our scholars put into their undergraduate education.”
Elizabeth Castro is one of those students.
Castro, who grew up in rural communities in Washington and Veracruz, Mexico, just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international studies and a minor in education. After spending the next year undertaking a Fulbright English teaching assistantship in Mexico, she will enroll in a master’s in education policy and management program at Harvard in the fall of 2017.
Castro noted that the support structure and family atmosphere McNair provided was pivotal, especially during the grad school application process in the fall and while conducting her research project in winter and spring.
“Had I been doing that alone, it would have been much more isolating,” she said. “I wouldn’t have had someone to do that outreach to when I was having some doubts or some of those insecurities.”
One particular resource Castro found impactful was the support from the McNair graduate student advisors, Cyndi Lopez and Cynthia Simekha. Their counsel when faced with her decision about which graduate school program was the right fit, as well as conversations about diversity in academia, were especially helpful.
“Because they’ve gone through it before, they were able to illuminate that quite a bit based on their own experiences,” she said.
When considering which program to attend, Castro also used a skill she learned from McNair – networking. She reached out to three students of Latin American descent who were in the graduate program she was considering at Harvard, as well as some faculty members. Learning more about their experiences helped solidify her decision.
Ultimately, Castro would like to work in federal education policy, particularly policy that serves students in rural communities, from Latin American descent (Latinx) and low-income backgrounds.
“Harvard really aligns with where I’m hoping to go in the future, particularly with education policy and the types of opportunities that are available in that field,” she said. “After my master’s, I want to continue through to my Ph.D. I’m excited that Harvard will be a big milestone in this process.”
For Castro’s classmate Mark Bennett, the McNair program made a future in graduate school look like a possibility.
“Learning about Ronald McNair and the program inspired me to consider life myself as ‘pre-graduate,’” he said. “By this I mean that it helped me feel like graduate school really was on the horizon and that I can fit the mold of a graduate student. Meeting the other McNair students reinforced this for me.”
Bennett is a former homeless youth who transferred to the UW from Seattle Central College. Last week, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and will remain at the UW to pursue a master’s degree in math.
And like Castro, the McNair Program helped him navigate the often intimidating graduate school application process.
“For someone who is new to it and feels like they don’t belong, this seems to be a very challenging first step,” Bennett said. “I thought the structure the program provided, the classes and the mentorship were vital to my success.”
In graduate school, Bennett is most looking forward to growing as a mathematician and expanding his knowledge of the field.
The stories of Castro and Bennett certainly aren’t unique. Their other McNair classmates can easily share similar experiences.
“The dedication and drive of these students to achieve their goals is truly inspirational,” said Sperry. “I am incredibly proud of having the chance to work alongside them during this past year.”
Where are They Headed? Grad School Destinations for the McNair Class of 2016
| Kainen Bell | Columbia University | School of Social Work (MSW) |
| Mark Bennett | University of Washington | Department of Mathematics (MS) |
| Elizabeth Castro | Harvard University | Graduate School of Education (M.Ed.)* |
| Victoria Chambers | University of Georgia | Human Development & Family Science (Ph.D.)* |
| Chelsea Cooper | Georgetown University | Walsh School of Foreign Service (MA) |
| Ferdose Idris | Princeton University | Sociology Department (Ph.D.) |
| Claudia Linares | Bastyr University | Counseling Psychology (MA) |
| Kenny Lino | Erasmus Mundus European Master’s Program in Language & Communication Technologies | |
| Jesus Martinez-Gomez | UC Berkeley | Department of Integrative Biology (Ph.D.) |
| Alicia Sawers | Rutgers | School of Social Work (Ph.D.) |
| Jennifer Smith | University of Washington | Department of History (Ph.D.) |
| Ibette Valle | University of Santa Cruz | Social Psychology (Ph.D.) |
| Yan Ting “Blair” Zhao | University of Connecticut | Biomedical Science (Ph.D.)* |
*deferring enrollment to fall 2017