West Virginia University senior Gino Degregori became WVU s first McNair Scholar to capture an award at the 8th Annual National McNair Conference held July 11-14 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Degregori, a business management major from Alexandria, Va., received 2nd place in the oral presentation competition, capturing WVU s first-ever McNair Conference award.
Degregoris presentation,”Exploratory Study of the Representation, Recruitment and Retention of Hispanics in US IT Employment: Conceptual Model and Research Design,”was based on a year-long research project through the McNair Scholar Program with Dr. Virginia Kleist, assistant professor of marketing management at WVU , who was first author of the research.
A total of 80 student oral presentations were given in the following categories: humanities/education, social science, physical science/math/computer science and biological science/health. Participants are required to explain all aspects of their research project.
Also participating in the competition were Serena Gibson, a senior psychology major from Looneyville, W.Va., and Jonathan Glover, a senior history major from Morgantown.
Gibson, a second year McNair Scholar, said the conference was a good experience.
“It gave me a chance to present my research to a group of professionals, which is important,”she said.
Gibson has worked on her research project, titled”Reactions of College Students to Participating in Traumatic Stress Research”, for the past year. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Joseph Scotti of the WVU Psychology Department.
“The McNair program gives me a chance to prepare for my future by really looking at several graduate schools and having a solid research project,”Gibson added.
Jonathon Glovers project, titled”Black Studies in CyberspaceConceptualizing History and Technology”, was supervised by faculty mentor Dr. Katherine Bankole, assistant professor of history at WVU .
McNair Program Coordinator Betty Mei is thrilled about the success of WVU s McNair Scholars at the conference.
“Its a great encouragement for our program,”Dr. Mei said.”We definitely have something to look forward to for next yeareach of the students has done an excellent job.”
The McNair program, federally funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, assists first generation college students and minority college students in preparing for graduate education. The program bears the name of Ronald E. McNair, who died along with six of his astronaut colleagues aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986.
McNair Scholars also receive a stipend for a six-week-long summer research internship, research writing and skills training, standardized test preparation, graduate school campus visits, graduate placement assistance and other professional development opportunities.
The program is open to full-time WVU students who have completed their sophomore
year of study, have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 and are considering graduate school.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens and/or permanent legal U.S. residents and be first generation college students with demonstrated need or a member of the numerically under-represented, such as African-Americans, Latino-Americans and Native Americans.
For more information, contact WVU s McNair Scholars Office at 304-293-4316 or visit the McNair website athttp://www.wvu.edu/~mcnair/IE/.