TRiO programs at UW-Superior provide qualified students with the necessary assistance to achieve their educational goals. They include Student Support Services, which provides tutoring and assistance to qualifying students;Upward Bound, which helps high school students prepare for college;and the McNair Scholars program, which prepares first-generation college students and students from under-represented groups for graduate study.

Those receiving awards on April 17th this year included:

Academic Support Center Tutor of the Year – Ali Bergstrom, Superior, now a senior at UW-Superior who is majoring in Elementary Education and minoring in Early Childhood, works as a tutor for the Academic Support Center where her tutoring services are highly sought after. She has the knowledge, patience, and skills necessary to help her fellow students.

Academic Support Center Student of the Year – Mualigbe Keita, who was in his first year at UW-Superior, emigrated to the U.S. about eight years ago from Guinea. As a student, he is a hard worker, and tries his best to do well in school and to complete his assignments on time. He is not shy to seek out assistance when needed. 

Math Lab Tutor of the Year -Tom Minor, Superior, Wis.

Math Lab Student of the Year – Jacob Murto, Milwaukee, Wis.

McNair Scholars Program — Scholar of the Year – Kang Her, Roberts, Wis.

McNair Scholars Program — Scholar of the Year – T.K. Vang, Stevens Point, Wis.

Upward Bound Tutor of the Year – Jade Wong, Milwaukee, Wis.

Upward Bound Students of the Year -Sami Lego, Poplar, Wis.

UW-Superior Foundation Gulland Scholarship Recipient – Rachel Taylor and Sara Mathias both from Superior, Wis.

TRiO Achiever Award for Outstanding Faculty and Staff – Jeff Kahler, Budget and Policy Analyst at UW-Superior.

UW-Superior Chancellor Renée Wachter opened the program with a welcome and congratulated the students on their accomplishments. Josh Berlo, UMD’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, was the guest speaker for the TRiO Day Awards program. Wisconsin State Representative Nick Milroy, a UW-Superior alumnus, was the concluding speaker for the event.

 The University of Wisconsin-Superior has also been selected to receive funding through a federal grant to continue the successful Student Support Services Program, enabling the university to continue offering tutoring, remedial work, disability support services, and outreach to first-generation, low-income college students.

The Student Support Services (SSS) grant from the U.S. Department of Education provides $292,340 a year for an anticipated five years. The first year of this grant award takes effect from September 2015 through August 2016. UW-Superior also contributes funds to Student Support Services. In 2015, UW-Superior was one of 25 Wisconsin universities and colleges to receive grants through the competitive process. U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin notified UW-Superior that the school has once again been selected to receive the on-going funding.

“This grant will enable us to continue to serve students and families that need support to complete their dreams of a college education,” said Toua Thao, project director, SSS, (TRiO) at UW-Superior. “Our priority is to serve students who might need an extra boost to prepare them for a quality education,” he said.

Student Support Services is a federally funded program designed to serve students who are qualified according to federal income guidelines, who are first generation college students (neither parent has a baccalaureate degree), or who have a disability. UW-Superior will be able to award $33,000 in scholarships through this program. Last year, UW-Superior was awarded $292,340 and was one of 11 UW System institutions that earned a grant.

Read the original article posted on July 30, 2015 here.

A 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.

The 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.

She eventually left behind the pizza and barber shears and, at age 27, will graduate from UW-Madison this weekend with a bachelor’s degree in physics and astrophysics.

“I’m just tremendously proud of her,” said physics professor Michael Ramsey-Musolf, who served as Otradovec’s research mentor. “She’s a remarkable scientist and person.”

Thousands of new graduates will walk across stages at local colleges and universities this weekend, collecting diplomas and stepping into the future. Otradovec stands out because of the journey that led her to that stage and the galactic future that awaits beyond.

Next stop: a doctorate program in physics at UC-Berkeley, ranked the fifth-best of its kind in the nation. She’ll go with help from a UC Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship, a prestigious honor. She credits UW-Madison mentors and, in particular, the McNair Scholars program, a federally funded program on campus to help first-generation college students pursue graduate school, for her unlikely success story.

“I wouldn’t be going to Berkeley, let alone with the chancellor’s fellowship, without McNair,” she said.

Otradovec grew up on the Menominee Indian reservation in northeastern Wisconsin. Her mother works at Wal-Mart. She chose a field, physics, where just 10 to 15 percent of university faculty nationally are women.

Although Otradovec showed academic promise at Shawano High School, health problems caused turbulence and she didn’t take college applications seriously enough. After graduation, she enrolled at a technical college but dropped out after a semester, earning just three credits.

To pay the bills, she took a job at Papa John’s in Green Bay, rising to management within a year. She quit, fearing the direction her life was heading, and later started a three-year apprentice program as a Cost Cutters barber.

She continued to harbor dreams to “play with lots of complicated matters,” dreams fed by a scientific curiosity developed in childhood. She figured her best fit would be in chemical engineering.

During barber training, a chemical engineer wound up in her chair for a trim. She told him of her interest in his field and got an unexpected response.

“Why don’t you do something else that’s more fulfilling?” she said he told her.

He recommended theoretical physics and suggested she read “The Elegant Universe” by Brian Greene. She picked up the book from the public library, and it changed her course.

“It’s really awesome,” she said. “It was the first time in a few years I was having my mind challenged. I decided I wanted to research something like this.”

She kept cutting hair, eventually earning her license. She filled her spare time devouring physics books from the library and making plans to apply to UW-Madison, partly for the opportunities it presented to do research in particle physics and partly for its history of student activism.

When the time came to apply, a glitch arose — her three credits earned at the technical college disqualified her to apply as a freshman, while at least 24 credits were required to apply as a transfer student. So she detoured to UW-Eau Claire, living in the dormitories with younger students and waiting for her Madison chance.

When that chance came, she thrived, earning mostly A’s and eventually scoring in the 94th, 96th and 98th percentile in the three parts of the Graduate Record Examination. She impressed faculty not only for tackling high-level research with Ramsey-Musolf in theoretical particle physics — rare for undergrads to attempt — but also for her work as a tutor in the physics learning center.

“She stood out for her maturity and for her commitment to inclusion and social justice in the larger campus community,” said Susan Nossal, director of the physics learning center. “She showed she really cared about other students’ learning and their success.”

Otradovec hopes to earn her doctorate and become a professor, reaching out to another generation of students.

“I definitely want to be someone in physics who makes it more common and possible for all sorts of people to play with the universe,” she said.

~ Article originally published by Dan Simmons in the Wisconsin State Journal on May 17, 2013. 

Last week, Pinnix presented “The Truth behind closed doors: A Qualitative and Quantitative investigation of Black heterosexual romantic relationships” at the Annual National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies, National Association of Native American Studies and the International Association of Asian Studies Conference.

“The project made me very passionate about research. Academically, I definitely learned a lot, particularly about how to conduct research,” Pinnix says. “I also learned how much I enjoy doing research, and how little research has been done on blacks and other minority relationships.”

This is just the kind of statement that Sidney Childs, director of TRIO Programs which includes the McNair Scholars Program, loves to hear. “We see so much promise in our students when they begin their studies at BGSU. However, since our scholars are first-generation students or from populations underrepresented at the doctoral level, they often don’t see the same potential in themselves,” he says. “It is wonderful to see Adeya presenting at a national conference and to hear about her plans for further academic pursuits.”

Pinnix credits the McNair Scholars Program with setting her on a successful research path. She says, “Research is emphasized early in your studies. McNair Scholars attend an intensive 200-hour summer research institute and several national research conferences. We also participate in courses for GRE and graduate studies preparation. Additionally, faculty in both the psychology and women’s studies programs have been tremendously encouraging about pursuing research and developing appropriate methodologies.”

“Adeya is such an insightful and engaged young scholar,” says Susana Peña, School of Cultural and Critical Studies director. “As a teacher, it is wonderful to watch her develop new ideas and insights and I look forward to her future academic achievements and contributions.”

– Article originally posted on the Bowling Green State University website.

Dylan, a senior graduating in May with a degree in Communication and Global Politics, completed his research while studying for a semester at American University coupled with a semester in Norway.  His topic is:  An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Two USAID Agricultural Projects: Rural Zambia (1995 and 2009).  His mentor at American University was Dr. Heather Heckel.   He participated in the Divided States of Europe Semester through the Higher Education Consortium of Urban Affairs (HECUA) and completed an Internship with ChangeMaker of Norwegian Church Aid while in Norway.

Dylan’s research was an offshoot of his continuing interest in conservation, water management and sustainable agriculture. Dylan served the St. Scholastica community as Chair of the CSS Environmental Sustainability Coalition: he organized a coalition to optimize energy efficiency in the Science Center addition; formulated an action plan to achieve a goal of campus-wide carbon neutrality; and pursued strategic goals of institutional accountability for energy efficiency.  He was a leader in Earth Action for environmental justice.

Further, as Coordinator for the Center for Just Living, Dylan organized and facilitated events for global justice education and activism; planned events to inform and engage students on social justice issues such as global climate change, food and water security, hunger and poverty,

homelessness, displacement, and international debt; and organized an effective fundraising dinner for solar stoves Duluth to Darfur.

A CSS Honors Student, Dylan was chosen as a Morris K. Udall Scholar 2009-2010 (following his Honorable Mention 2008-2009).  In August, 2010, he will enroll in a dual master’s program at American University and the United Nations-affiliated University for Peace- Costa Rica (UPEACE) to eventually obtain degrees in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development.  Dylan’s life work includes plans to promote environmental solutions and social justice as inseparable issues that must be taken into account in US policy toward sustainable development abroad.

The Rev. Rozenia A.H. Fuller has received a 2009 TRiO Achievers Award from the Mid-America Association of Educational Opportunity ProgramPersonnel (MAEOPP). The prestigious award recognizes outstanding former participants in the federal TRiO programs who have made significant civic, community or professional contributions.

Jennifer Brookins-King from Minnesota Community and Technical College (MCTC) nominated the Rev. Fuller for the award because of her personal, educational and professional accomplishments. When Rev. Fuller enrolled at MCTC in 1995, she was a single mother of two who had just moved out of a shelter for battered women and children. She joined MCTC’s Starting Point/Student Support Services TRiO program and excelled in and out of the classroom. While at MCTC, the Rev. Fuller was a mentor, president of student government, a Kopp Presidential Scholar, and a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the All-USA Community College Academic Team.

After receiving a Liberal Arts degree from MCTC in 1998, she transferred to Augsburg College where she was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and received the Marina Christensen Justice Award and the Linda Schrempp Alberg Leadership Award. She graduated from Augsburg in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Youth and Family Ministry. In 2005, she received a Master’s of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, where she was an Acorn Foundation scholar. During her professional career, the Rev. Fuller has served as an associate pastor of pastoral care at Rossmoor Community Church in Monroe Township, N.J., as chaplain for Presbyterian Homes and Services, PHS Senior Living, in Princeton, N.J., as an academic advisor for student support services at Augsburg College, and as a social worker for Another Chance Agency in Minneapolis. She was recently inducted into the 2009 Minneapolis Community and Technical College Hall of Fame and was named the 2009 Augsburg College Pan-Afrikan Student Union’s Alum of the Year.

“At MCTC, I discovered an invaluable TRiO support system,” says the Rev. Fuller. “Whether helping me overcome my math anxiety or budget for bus fare, my TRiO advisors were always accessible and gave me the academic language, courage, confidence and love that I needed to succeed not only as a student but as a single parent. The TRiO program was there for me every step of the way.”

The TRiO programs are federally funded, educational outreach programs designed to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including low-income, first-generation college students. There are 68 TRiO programs in Minnesota’s public and private institutions. MCTC has six TRiO programs, more than any other higher education institution in Minnesota.

– Article orginally posted at http://www.minneapolis.edu/documents/pressroom/qtvtyoybit0zterwL1i7Lvrut6.pdf

As of late, Steffen has been working with Tasman on “Flickers of Recognition: Technology and the Self Portrait,” an exhibit opening June 5 at the Guenzel Gallery of Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek, Wis.

Tasman’s exhibit consists of a three-and-a-half-year portion of the Polaroid photos he has taken of himself daily for just shy of a decade. His project is representative of the accelerated rate of technological change. When he started his project in 1999, Polaroid cameras were state of the art. In spring 2008, Polaroid announced it would no longer be producing products. Tasman’s last set of film expired in May, though his project will not be complete until July 23, 2009.

During the process, Steffen has been helping Tasman archive and index the Polaroids on Flickr, along with finding ways to incorporate the concept of how technology develops identity and how a person is perceived, into her final research project.

“I find it interesting how documenting one’s development and transitions through life have gone beyond the intimate process of journaling,” says Steffen. “And with the project being on the Internet, Marc is going to see and hear how others perceive him.”

Tasman started the conceptual project on July 24, 1999, shortly after moving into a tiny Chicago apartment with his wife. Collecting self images with a Polaroid camera took little space and was “like magic,” producing physical photos in a matter of minutes.

Today the project’s significance as digital self-portraiture relates to both social-media sites and photo- and video-sharing sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Youtube, and their influences on identity formation in the users who create and upload these media. “We use the social media as a tool, something all humans use,” says Tasman. “We find ways to do everything, and this is just another tool.”

“Flickers of Recognition: Technology and the Self Portrait” will run June 5-July 16, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 6, from 5-7 p.m. and an artists’ gallery talk beginning at 4 p.m. Along with Tasman, Peck School of the Arts lecturers Renato Umali and A. William Miller will display works. Educators from New York University and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design will also be featured in the exhibit.

Steffen had several hurdles to clear before being selected as one of 15 McNair scholars at UWM this summer. McNair scholars are chosen based on financial need, are first-generation college students from underrepresented backgrounds and must be junior or senior students with a minimum GPA of 2.75. Steffen also had the task of finding a mentor.

Steffen took a class with Tasman a couple of years back, which ended up being one of her favorite classes. When it came to finding a mentor, the choice was easy. “Marc allowed us to look at various media outlets and the way minorities and different racial groups are presented in a light that most people are scared of,” says Steffen.

The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, was established in 1989, with UWM selected as one of the first 14 universities to receive funding. The program’s purpose is to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds entering graduate-level studies.