McNair is a two-year adventure with a lifelong impact. While at UW-Eau Claire McNair Scholars take part in a curriculum-based learning community, one in which eligible* upper-division students all want to pursue research-based doctorates. McNair Scholars--
- design research projects
- take part in collaborative research
- explore funding sources and write grants
- design powerful statements of their credentials
- pursue national and international scholarships and fellowships
- learn about the development of the American Research Community
- attend prestigious graduate schools throughout the U.S. and abroad.
UW-Eau Claire's McNair Program, funded through a grant from the U. S. Department of Education, began in 2000. Since then 151 UW-Eau Claire students have taken part or are currently engaged in the program. Thirty-four of our 117 graduated McNair Scholars now hold the doctorate. An additional forty-seven hold masters degrees.
To date our Scholars pursue(d) advanced degrees in 55 graduate institutions in 25 different states and in four foreign countries. Our Scholars have successfully competed for prestigious national and international awards including Mellon, Truman, Fulbright, Newberry, Woodrow Wilson, Gilman, Mitchem, Ford, Abraham Lincoln, Truman-Albright, Boren, Phi Kappa Phi, Deutsche Paedogogische Austauschdienst, and National Institute of Drug Abuse Fellowships. They have held or currently hold research internships or postdoctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Center for Drug Control, the Mayo Clinic, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Relations, NASA, NSF's Inter-American Observatory in Chile, the National Center for Drug Abuse, the National Park Service, the New York State Council on the Humanities, the British Museum, the Forschungsinstitut fuer Physicalische-Chemie in Graz, Austria, and the Prokofiev-Arkiv in Moskow.
* McNair Scholars are academically talented 1st generation college students from low-income families OR academically talented students from racial/ethnic groups that are underrepresented among American doctoral recipients.
