Winter 2013 Volume 4, Issue 1 New McNair Faces · This past fall the McNair selection committee had a difficult decision to make when selecting the new group of McNair Scholars, but

New McNair Faces

This past fall the McNair selection committee had a difficult decision to make when selecting the

new group of McNair Scholars, but in the end 23 new students were selected to join the program

this semester. These students come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, and with a

wealth of experience and knowledge. While some of our new scholars will begin working with

faculty mentors right away in preparation for summer research, others will be focusing on attend-

ing workshops and learning more about the overall graduate application process. All of us in the

McNair office are excited to begin working with each of our new scholars this semester and to

see them grow and learn more about research, graduate school, and so much more.

Inside this issue:

McNair Graduates

Spooner Grant

2

2

Winter Workshops

Senior Retreat

3

3

Alumni Updates

Andrea Selmser

4

4

Tracy Pickering

Emily Sprengelmeyer

5

5

Five More Years of

Funding

6

Fall Conferences

Student Spotlight

7

7

Making the Grade

Table Manners

8

8

McNair Scholars Program www.nmu.edu/mcnair

Newly Selected McNair Scholars

Rebecca Allers Michael Flores Rachel McOwusu

Kurt Benckendorf Taylor Freund Troy Morris

Nick Bohn Willow Grosz Nicole Musi

Mark Cook Gabrielle Hoffman Emily Mydlowski

Chandler Countryman Rory Jackson Ryan Passino

Justin Cribley Kurt Kilpela Ethan Scott

Caleb Dean Cierra LaBelle Meghan Whitenton

Alicia DenHerder Michelle McGuire

Winter 2013

Volume 4, Issue 1

New and old scholars talk about their

academic interests at a McNair social in

December.

Congratulations to our graduates!

Each December, we have a small number of

students who graduate and leave NMU

mid-year. This year, four of our

outstanding students walked across the stage

on December 15 and became proud NMU

graduates. This fall, each of our graduates

were students of the biology program and

are currently planning on continuing their

education, either through NMU’s graduate

biology program or at another institution.

We are very excited for each and every one

of our graduates this semester and wish

them the best of luck in their upcoming

academic pursuits!


Volume 4 Issue 1 Page 2

December 2012 McNair Graduates

Brittney Dodge: (pictured right) Brittney

graduated with honors from the biology program and has

applied to several graduate programs throughout the country.

Brittney hopes to start a program this upcoming fall.

Karla Kopp: Karla graduated with honors from the

biology program and has been applying to graduate

programs throughout the country. Karla will be taking a trip

to Disney World to celebrate her graduation while she waits

to hear from potential graduate schools.

Rachel Sines: Rachel

(pictured left) graduated with honors from the biology

program and is moving downstate in January. She will be

taking a semester off before applying to graduate schools

in southern Michigan.

Mandy Taisto: Mandy graduated with her biology

degree and will be starting her master’s in biology here at

NMU. For the past two years, Mandy has been actively

working in Dr. Erich Ottem’s lab and plans to continue this

research during her graduate education.

Charles Spooner Research Grant

As any researcher knows, funding is

essential. Emily Perdue, who has been with

the McNair program since 2010 and has been

an active researcher during her entire time in

the program, knows this all too well. So

when Emily was notified in late October that

she was the recipient of NMU’s Charles C.

Spooner Student Research Grant, she was

very excited and relieved to have additional

funds to continue the research that she loves.

The Charles C. Spooner Student Research

Grant is awarded to students every semester

through the grants and contracts office. In

order to receive the grant, students must

submit a research proposal outlining their

project. Emily, who had been working on a

project with Dr. Timothy Hilton throughout

the summer on her McNair project, was

hoping to receive this grant so she could

continue this project.

“This is the best thing that could've happened

to let me know that I am on the right track to

becoming a professional researcher; someone

who can contribute to society by finding

things out about how it works, understanding

what that means for people, and sharing that

information with people who want to know,”

said Emily. “Things like the Spooner grant

make this possible; and this is what makes

the Spooner grant so powerfully valuable.”

Coordinator Megan DelBello received her master of

public administration degree and McNair Scholar

Karla Kopp earned her bachelor of science degree.

Spooner award winner Emily Perdue

January 16 Welcome Back Workshop/Summer Research

(No GRE prep this week)

January 29 Financial Aid Questions Answered (with the assistant

director of financial aid)

February TBA Stress Relief and Semester Coping Techniques

February 27 Library Research (With library liaison SaraJane

Tompkins)

March 13 Graduate School Applications Process– tips from

those who just applied

March 27 Keeping the Research Rolling

April TBA Faculty Roundtable Discussion

April TBA McNair Graduation Reception

April 11 Celebration of Student Works– NMU’s Research

Conference

McNair Graduate Retreat

During the last weekend in September,

five NMU scholars took a trip to

Wisconsin to participate in the annual

McNair Senior Retreat. Hosted by Don

Asher, a well-known expert in helping

students apply to graduate programs, this

weekend allowed students to learn tips

and techniques to make their

applications standout, and put their best

foot forward when writing personal

statements. They also networked with

other McNair students from across the

Midwest.

For many of the students who attended,

it was an invigorating weekend that not

only allowed them to bond with other

McNair students, but also gave them the

extra application push they needed.

“The conference was necessary for me to

get re-excited about furthering my educa-

tion,” said scholar Karla Kopp. “Donald

Asher was so knowledgeable regarding

anything and everything needed to prepare

for graduate school. Because of the trip, I

have gained a new confidence for applying

to graduate school.”

This is the second time NMU has

Winter Workshop Schedule

Volume 4, Issue 1 Page 3


This semester is going to be one of the

busiest semesters so far in the McNair

offices, with 23 new scholars who will be

taking part in workshops and learning from

their “older and wiser” peers who have

been in the program for a while. The

McNair staff has put together a workshop

schedule that provides a good mixture of

research preparation, graduate school

preparation and social activities.

Once again, Dr. Andy Poe will be hosting

GRE prep every Monday night for our

large group of scholars. With the GRE

being a necessary test for almost every

graduate program that our students are

considering, Dr. Poe’s wisdom on this test

has helped many students in the past and

will help many more this year as well.

In addition to participating in workshops,

our scholars will also be preparing to

present the research they did last summer

for the campus-wide “Celebration of

Student Works” research conference in

April.

Winter 2013 Workshop Schedule

All workshops and GRE prep will be held this semester in 2806 West Science at 6 p.m.

Ashley Schmeling and Taylor Johnson attended

the McNair Senior Retreat in September with

other scholars.

participated in this annual retreat and it is

just one of many opportunities provided to

students as they prepare for graduate school.

Alumni Updates Now that the McNair program has a few

years of success under its belt, we are

happy to report that we have numerous

scholars working in graduate programs

around he country. Although we miss

them greatly around the McNair offices,

we are always very excited to hear up-

dates about where they are now

Andrea Selmser graduated from NMU

and the McNair program in December

2011, in the midst of applying to many

graduate programs throughout the

country. Andrea was elated to learn in

April 2012 that she was accepted into the

Communicative Sciences and Disorders

masters program at Michigan State

University for fall 2012. What made the

acceptance even sweeter was that

Andrea’s twin sister, Jocelyn, had started

the same program in fall 2011.

After one successful semester at MSU,

Andrea contacted the McNair office to

update everyone on how the transition to

graduate school went. Not only was this a

big academic transition for Andrea, it was

also a huge life transition too. Being a

native of Ishpeming and moving 400

miles south was a big life change, but one

she has enjoyed.

Andrea noted that “her favorite class this

first semester was neuroanatomy because

I learned in-depth anatomy of the brain

and how it functions. It was very a

challenging and interesting class.”

“Some of the biggest differences she has

noticed between her undergraduate career

and graduate classes are the pace of the

lectures. At MSU, we cover materials at a

very high pace. It is important to read



the assigned materials before lecture,

because the lecture itself is fast-paced

and usually an overview of the

materials.”

In addition to the challenging classes,

Andrea will be starting an internship

this winter in her field to gain practical

experience. “I am looking forward to

starting my first speech therapy

internship at an elementary school here

in East Lansing,” she noted. “I will be

working with children that are three to

nine years old. The caseload is

primarily autism, but I will also see

children with other disorders. It will be

a busy semester, but I am looking

forward to it.”

Andrea offers a few words of wisdom

to current McNair Scholars who are

preparing to enter graduate school in

the upcoming months. “One great way

to survive graduate school is to get

involved in a study group. You can

bounce ideas off of each other an stay

motivate to study. Also, make sure to

pace yourself and don’t procrastinate!

Once mid-terms happen, everything can

really start to pile-up.”

From Wildcat to Spartan

The McNair office will be anxiously awaiting

updates on how Andrea’s upcoming internship

goes and we continue to wish her the best of

luck in graduate school at MSU.

living, what projects they are working on,

and much more!

Check out these updates from a few of our

scholars. For continual updates on these

individuals and others, watch our website

for the most up-to-date alumni updates.

2011 and 2012 McNair graduates

Michael Michalek and Andrea Selmser

Andrea showing her U.P pride at the

Ishpeming High School Football

championship at Ford Field in November.

Teaching Abroad

Tracy Pickering graduated from NMU and

the McNair Program in May 2012 and

prior to graduating already had

accomplished a great number of things.

She had completed an internship with a

non-profit in Washington D.C., had been a

member of the All Student Judiciary, was a

tutor for the Upward Bound Program and

much more. So, it was no surprise to any-

one when Tracy decided that she wanted to

teach abroad for a couple of years to gain

even more experience before she applied to

graduate school.

Tracy was accepted to teach abroad in

Korea and arrived in August to begin this

life changing experience as an English

teacher. Tracy spends her time teaching at

three different schools, and she has noted

that she is so far loving the experience.

“The students at my home school are

wonderful. I have six classes here, not

including two classes of Frisbee that I

teach every other Wednesday. Lesson

wise, I have a LOT of leeway– I can pretty

much teach whatever I want. I was very

nervous about the first week of classes,

but those went quite easily and now that I

know most of their English levels,

everything is going much smoother.”

In addition to greatly enjoying her time in

the classroom as a teacher, Tracy has

expressed that she is overall really

enjoying the cultural changes she has

experienced while in Korea. “I feel

exceedingly blessed and grateful for how

things have been working out for me

here,” said Tracy. “It could just be the

honeymoon period, but I’ve found I really

love Korean food! I have made several

good friends in my orientation group and

the largest city near me is only about an

hour away, so on the weekends it is very

easy (and cheap!) to travel there and see

people. There’s a good network of people

who have welcomed me into their fold

who have been here for at least two years,

and have been immensely generous when

it comes to helping me orient myself and

figure out how to get around and do some

basic tasks”



Tracy, having her palm read during some of

her time away from the classroom in Korea.

Northern Experiences

Emily Sprengelmeyer earned her

bachelor’s degree from NMU in May

2012 and made the decision to stay at

NMU to complete her master’s degree in

the biology department. “My decision to

stay at NMU was based on the guaranteed

financial support the university was

willing to provide through a graduate

assistantship,” said Emily. “I knew that I

wanted to first complete an M.S. degree

before tackling a Ph.D. program.”

Unlike many graduate students in the

biology department, Emily did not receive

a teaching assistantship. Instead, she

interviewed for and received a non-

teaching administrative assistantships that

are available on campus and offer the

same stipend and tuition benefits. “My

assistantship is through the grants and

contracts office,” said Emily. “So in

addition to the skills and professional

experience I am gaining through

coursework and my thesis research, I am

also getting professional research

administration experience.”

Emily just completed her first semester as

a graduate student and is happy to report

Tracy, who worked with Dr. Steven Nelson

while in the McNair Program, hopes to

continue her teaching experience for the

next two years in Korea and then plans on

applying to graduate programs in the United

States. The McNair Program continues to

wish her the best of luck on her overseas

adventures and can’t wait to hear more

updates soon.

that it was very productive. “I was able to

devote time to reading widely in order to

refine my research questions and methods. I

was also able to complete my research

proposal and begin some preliminary field

work. I am

looking

forward to

officially

beginning

data

collection this

spring.”

Five More Years!

This past October, the McNair office staff

was excited to learn that they had

successfully rewritten their program grant

through the Department of Education and

funded for another five years.

The competition for refunding was very

tight this year, with no new programs

funded and many long-standing McNair

programs losing their funding. The

McNair office credits hard working

students and dedicated faculty mentors

for helping show how great our program

has been over the last few years.

Thank you to everyone for your support



and assistance, not only during the grant

application process, but also over the last

three years. Your contributions to this

program have helped it be successful and

have helped our students do great things.

We look forward to working with the

NMU community for many more years to

come.

The McNair office has been able to help many students over the past three

years, and we are excited to be able to continue to help the students of NMU

do all of the things they’ve done in the past….and more!

Scholar Brittney Dodge presenting at a McNair

Conference in California– Summer 2012

Scholar Rozemary Howard attending

a McNair campus visitation day at the

University of Minnesota–

Summer 2012

Scholars Eva Statler, Hunter Harig, Andrea

Selmser and Linda Sirois at the McNair

Senior Retreat in Wisconsin– Fall 2010

Scholars Mike Michalek and Matt Cowling

enjoying the Fall 2011 banquet. Scholars visiting the University of

Wisconsin-Madison– Summer 2011

Scholars visiting Michigan State

University– Summer 2012

Student Spotlight: Karla Kopp

It was a busy fall semester for several of our

senior scholars who were not only

preparing to graduate and apply to graduate

programs, but also found time to present

their research at conferences throughout the

country.

In October, Ashley Schmeling’s research

examining working memory assessment

was accepted to be presented at the National

Neuroscience Conference in New Orleans.

Also in October, Brittney Dodge traveled to

Detroit to present her research on bird feather

DNA-barcoding to high school students at

the YES! Expo. In November, D’Juana

Jackson and Karla Kopp presented their

research at the National McNair Research

Conference in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

We are very proud of each of our scholars

who traveled and presented their research this

past semester and look forward to all of our

scholars presenting at this semester’s

“Celebration of Student Works” at NMU.

forward to graduate school more than

ever now and really have McNair to

thank for that.”

To learn more about Karla and what

she’ll be tackling post-graduation, check

out her full profile on the McNair

Scholars website at www.nmu.edu/

mcnair.

December graduate Karla Kopp was in

the McNair Program for two years while

earning her bachelor’s degree in biology

at Northern. During that time she took

part in a wide variety of McNair and

NMU related events.

Karla, who completed her McNair

research with Dr. Patrick Brown from

biology during summer 2011 examining

forest management practices, was also a

community adviser for Housing and

Residence Life for two years and was

very active in NMU’s annual Relay for

Life. It was during her experiences

working on research, though, that she

discovered her interests and became

serious about applying to graduate

school.

“Being part of McNair has been extremely

helpful and motivating for me,” said Karla.

“I have been able to really understand my

own interests and become more familiar

with the type of work being done in my

area of interest.”

Through her forest management research

with Dr. Brown, Karla noted that she was

given a unique opportunity and was really

able to build a project up from ground

zero. “The research gave me an

opportunity to become better experienced

in both field and lab research techniques.”

During her time in the program, Karla

participated in several graduate school and

conference trips. “The conference

opportunities have been a wonderful

resource for me,” said Karla “I am looking

A Fall Full of Conference Travel



Top left: Brittney Dodge made the long trip to

Detroit to present her research to high school

students at the YES! Expo at Ford Field.

Bottom left: D’Juana Jackson and Karla Kopp at

the 21st Annual McNair National Research

Conference.

Right: Ashley Schmeling at the 2012

Neuroscience Conference.

Going through the graduate school application process can be time consuming and

can have many different components, including an interview portion. To help our

students feel confident in the case of a dinner interview situation, the McNair

office hosted a dining etiquette workshop last September.

The workshop, which was hosted by John Frick, the associate director of housing

and residence life, taught the scholars proper dining techniques, what is and is not

acceptable dinner conversation topics, and much more. Everyone involved had a

great time and enjoyed a wonderful meal!

Table Manners

Congratulations to the following McNair Scholars who showed

exceptional academic performance during the fall 2012 semester

and landed themselves on NMU’s Dean’s List. Great job everyone,

and keep up the good work this semester!

Director: Heather Pickett

Coordinator: Megan DelBello

Secretary: Terri Williams

2804 West Science

906-227-2590

[email protected]

www.nmu.edu/mcnair

Facebook: NMU McNair Scholars

NMU Mc Na i r Sc h o la r s

Prog ra m



Scholar Emily Hansen presenting at the NMU

UNITED conference.

NMU is an equal opportunity institution

.

Making the Grade

Fall 2012 Dean’s List

Everyone was all smiles,

enjoying a great meal and

learning some great

dining tips!

Rebecca Allers Rozemary Howard David Seramur

Macrea Anderson Rory Jackson Meghan Whitenton

Kurt Benckendorf Taylor Johnson

Markus Cook Kurt Kilpela

Matthew Cowling Rachael Belmore

Justin Cribley Michelle McGuire

Caleb Dean Troy Morris

Alicia DenHerder Nicole Musi

Michael Flores Emily Mydlowski

Taylor Freund Ricki Oldenkamp

Willow Grosz Ryan Passino

Emily Hansen Emily Perdue

Ryan Haskell Ashley Schmeling

Gabrielle Hoffman Ethan Scott

Documents

Winter 2013 Volume 4, Issue 1 New McNair Faces · This past fall the McNair selection committee had a difficult decision to make when selecting the new group of McNair Scholars, but