McNair grants open doors to grad school

The McNair Scholars Program continues to make an indelible mark on University of North Georgia (UNG) students. Thanks to a second five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, this one for $1.3 million and running through September 2027, UNG will be able to prepare even more students for graduate school.

In the past three academic years, 23 of 26 graduates who were part of the McNair Program have gone on to attend graduate school.

The McNair Program is designed to prepare sophomores, juniors and seniors from all UNG campuses for post-graduate studies through involvement in research and scholarly activities. Participants are either first-generation college students with financial need or members of a group traditionally underrepresented in graduate education who have shown strong academic potential.

"We're really trying to level the playing field so students who do not see themselves as college graduates can see themselves as graduate school graduates," Dr. Crystal Toombs, UNG McNair Program director, said. "We're not only changing the trajectory of one student. We're changing the trajectory of a generation. These students have individuals looking at them as models of how to be successful."

In addition to undergraduate research and faculty mentorship, McNair students also participate in trips to expose them to graduate school. They visited schools in New York and Washington, D.C., in summer 2022.

"It helped me visualize that I can go anywhere and do anything," Michelle Alvarado, a senior from Cornelia, Georgia, pursuing a degree in English with a concentration in literature, said.

We're not only changing the trajectory of one student. We're changing the trajectory of a generation. These students have individuals looking at them as models of how to be successful.

Dr. Crystal Toombs

UNG McNair Program director

Alisha Paul, a junior from Guyana who attended high school in Duluth, Georgia, and is pursuing a degree in biology, earned a Goldwater Scholarship in spring 2022. The scholarship is designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue research careers in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Paul particularly appreciates the way the McNair Program teaches research skills and walks students through every step of the grad school application process.

"It gets you out of your comfort zone," Paul said. "It helps you overcome your fears and leads you to have new expectations and see the world differently."

Dr. Bryan Dawson, the principal investigator on both McNair grants UNG has received, will assist with the program as Dr. Christian Bello Escobar steps up to serve as the new principal investigator. Dawson marvels at McNair's impact at UNG.

"We help these students get scholarships, stipends or tuition waivers to attend graduate school. It helps these students realize graduate school is attainable," Dawson, a professor of psychological science, said. "Then faculty mentors help the students with research. Students realize there's a person at the university who cares about them. It's powerful."

Bello Escobar, director of academic and clinical engagement in UNG's College of Education, is grateful to become a part of that legacy in the years ahead.

"We want to help students think beyond what they imagine they can do," Bello Escobar said.