McNair Monday

Every Monday during our Summer Research Institute, we are celebrating McNair Scholars at Kent State! We will be sending you an email highlighting something we have done and/or providing you with an interesting fact about the program, our scholars, or our faculty mentors.

The picture above is from our leadership retreat, which we did at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park last week. Ask a scholar about kayaking, paddle boarding and the Ga-Ga champion!

Did you know? The McNair Scholars Program will be celebrating its 20th year at Kent State in 2018-19. The first grant was funded in 1999.

Scholar Spotlight: Deven Smith, pictured here, is a senior accounting major. In addition to being a McNair Scholar, he serves as a Lead URS Ambassador. Deven is working with Dr. Mark Lyberger, an associate professor in Sport Administration, who has done a number of studies in the area of sports marketing.

Deven is completing a meta-analysis of ambush marketing research. A meta-analysis is a type of systematic review of data from several studies in an effort to have more statistical power to draw conclusions about a particular research topic. Ambush marketing is what happens when a company connects their product with an event that already has official sponsors. Deven uses this example: “Ambush marketing would be when Apple pays to sponsor the Super Bowl, but Samsung (who isn’t an official sponsor) runs commercials referencing “the Big Game.”

Did you know? There are only 4 McNair Programs in Ohio: Kent State, University of Cincinnati, Cleveland State, and Bowling Green.

Scholar Spotlight: The scholar pictured here is Leanna Maguire. Her research this summer is focused on the question of whether the size of arrow heads used by ancient hunters affect their durability. She has to recreate arrow heads in different sizes and then fire them with a crossbow into wood until they break. This project is under the direction of Dr. Metin Eren, who has one of only three experimental archaeology labs in the country. Leanna also has a peer-reviewed journal article in press, where she is the first author! It will be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Did you know? McNair Scholars also do research during the academic year. This can be an expansion of their summer project or a new research project.

Last week, we were in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to talk with faculty from various graduate programs at Temple University. While we were there, we had a chance to visit the African-American Museum of Philadelphia, one of the oldest African-American museums in the U.S. The art behind us is in a series titled, “E-Val” by artist Russell Craig.

Did you know? In addition to group graduate school visits, McNair provides some support for Scholars to visit graduate schools to which they have been admitted.

We have been really busy preparing for conference presentations, and the picture here is from the McNair Conference at the University of Buffalo last summer (2017). Our current scholars will be leaving for this conference on Thursday and they will all be presenting their research projects. Did you know? There are McNair Conferences all over the country, at different times of the year. It is a great opportunity for scholars to network, check out graduate programs, and learn from each other.

Today’s picture is from the McNair Conference at the University of Buffalo, which was July 19-21, 2018. Shakeela Gary is shown presenting her research on the relationships among hyper-masculinity, hip-hop, and dating choices among African-American college students. As you can see from the picture, it was standing room only! If you see a scholar today, tell them congratulations on a phenomenal job representing Kent State at the conference!

Did you know? Today, we are hosting our sister McNair program from the University of Cincinnati. Our staff assisted in the coordination of a graduate school visit for them, so they will be meeting our scholars, talking with faculty about graduate programs and going on a campus tour.

This past weekend, we had our annual picnic, at the home of Dr. Liz. Scholars brought guests and enjoyed good food, laughter, and sunshine. The music was pretty good too! The picnic happens the weekend before the official conclusion of the Summer Research Institute, which is marked by the McNair Summer Research Institute Symposium. The symposium is this Thursday. Scholars will be delivering their final research presentations!

Did you know? We will begin recruiting the next McNair cohort in September. If you know a student who is interested in going to graduate school, please send them to see one of our staff! Applications will be due mid-October!

Last Thursday, we concluded the Summer Research Institute with our annual SRI Symposium, help in the Kent Student Center Ballroom Balcony. All of our scholars presented their research. Attendees included faculty mentors, scholar’s friends and family, McNair alumni, and supporters from various departments around campus. We’d like to send a special shout out to our SSS family (TRIO Works!!) for always showing up to support our scholars; and N.J. and Dean Pringle for sharing some encouraging words during our awards ceremony.

Did you know? Our scholars are already gearing up to do academic year research! Applications will go out today and will be due right after Labor Day. Scholars can choose to expand the project they completed during SRI or work on a new project.

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