McNair
scholars display outstanding study skills
By
Porscher Lowe
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Cal
State University Long Beach McNair Scholars
displayed their poster presentations Tuesday,
readying themselves for their oral presentations
that will be given this Thursday and Friday.
The
program, which aims to provide research
opportunities to scholars who are underrepresented,
first-generation college students or from
low-income families, requires that each
scholar participate in a six-week summer
research internship. This year, there are
22 scholars participating in the program.
The
summer research internship consists of selecting
a research topic, participating in weekly
research skills seminars, weekly research
presentation workshops and presenting their
research project findings to the CSULB campus
community.
The
poster presentations help to get their topics
recognized and offer background about what
research methods they used to get their
findings.
"It's
a work in progress," said Guadalupe
Reyes, a McNair scholar poster presenter
and sociology major. "It really helps
put a clear focus on what the topic is."
The
posters also help show how diverse the research
topics are. Subjects range from why Latinas
choose social work as a career to a rhetorical
study of presidential deception.
"Some
of the topics are really radical. There's
just such a wide variety of questions being
asked by the scholars." Reyes said.
Jamail
Carter, a senior film major and McNair scholar
conducted his research on what he believes
is a lack of spirituality in film. Carter
believes that people often look at film
for its aesthetic make-up and sense of self-fulfillment
and questions why there is no sense of spirituality
that comes from film.
"I
want people to strive for spirituality and
not just superficiality when it comes to
making films. People need to look at who
they are first before they look at other
things," Carter said.
Brenda
Quintero, a senior Chicano/ Latino studies
major researched how Mexican-American college
women form identity when living both an
immigrant experience as well as an Americanized
one.
"I
want people to walk away from my presentation
questioning their identity and how that
affects their contribution to society,"
Quintero said. "I wanted to focus on
second generation Mexican-American college
women to see how factors such as background,
family and neighborhood contribute to their
self-identity."
Quitntero
credits the McNair Scholars program for
helping peak her interest in such research
as well as her desire to pursue a Ph.D.
"Because
of McNair, I really want to puruse my doctorate
degree, Quintero said. "I have a strong
interest in teaching at a university level
now and am very excited about my graduate
studies. Everything I know about research
and graduate school I learned from being
in McNair."
Oral
presentations will conclude this year's
McNair Scholars program. Presentations will
be given in the Karl Anatol Center, Library
East, Thursday, July 31 and Firday, Aug.
1 from 8:30 a/m/ to noon.
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