McNair Scholar from Cairo Wins Award from SIU

Posted by on Saturday, August 1, 2015 17:08 - 0 Comments

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southern-illinois-university-carbondale_logoA senior in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts is the winner of this year’s McNair Scholars Summer Research Symposium at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Demetrius Green of Cairo, who is majoring in radio, television and digital media, won a $150 cash award for his presentation titled “Black Sitcoms and White Fragility: How to become a successful American television show.”

His mentor was Saran Donahoo, associate professor of educational administration and higher education.

The annual symposium, held July 16, highlights the work of SIU undergraduates in the McNair Scholars program.

The research institute is an intensive eight-week program during which the scholars work with their mentors to master advanced research skills, including fieldwork and literature review, compiling data and writing research papers.

This year, 12 students from the McNair Scholars Program and 10 students from the SI Bridges to the Baccalaureate program presented their research at the symposium.

The McNair Scholars Program is named for the late Ronald E. McNair, a physicist and astronaut who died in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

The program provides enriched instruction for first-generation or otherwise underserved students.

 It emphasizes strong mentoring, professional development and research opportunities that promote academic excellence and encourage success at the graduate level.

NIH_Master_Logo_Vertical_2ColorThe SI Bridges to Baccalaureate program is funded by the National Institutes of Health and provides paid biomedical and behavioral science research training and professional development for underserved community college students.

Students receive assistance in transferring to SIU and completing a baccalaureate degree in science, technology, engineering, math or social science disciplines.

SI Bridges is a cooperative effort among SIU, John A. Logan College at Carterville and Shawnee Community College at Ullin.

Among the other award recipients, with the title of their research and mentor were the following students from the Southern Illinois area:

Second place: Naomi Tolbert, a junior in political science from Carbondale for “Unequal Access: Factors Contributing to the Disproportional Representation of Marginalized Groups within Study Abroad Programs.” Her mentor was Chris Stout, assistant professor of political science.  Tolbert received a $100 cash award.

Fourth place (tie): Michael Sall, senior in horticulture from Carbondale, for “In vitro screening of native Trichoderma spp. isolates as potential biological control agents of seedling diseases of soybean caused by Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia solani.” His mentor was Ahmad M. Fakhoury, associate professor of plant, soil and agricultural systems. Sall received a $50 cash award.

Students who also made presentations included the following students from the Southern Illinois area:

Leslie Murray, a senior in philosophy from Carbondale, for “The Immanence of the Eschaton & the Scientific Discoveries of the Present.” Murray’s mentor was Randall Auxier, professor of philosophy.

Luis Trevino-Pena, junior in philosophy from Cobden, for “Physician-assisted suicide: Addressing the ‘right to die’ argument.” His mentor was Andrew Youpa, associate professor of philosophy.

This article was originally posted on July 27, 2015 on AnnaNews.com. Click here to read the original article.





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