TRiO Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program

Cheney, Washington, July 15th and 16th, 2011.

Thank you to the EWU Provost's Office and Alumni Association for their generous sponsorship of Coming Full Circle and Sharing the Legacy.  Thank to Jim Tourtillottee, for representing Alumni Advancement, and to all the other McNair supporters.  Thanks also to Dining Services for their hard work, to EWU student Evan Sykes for creating the new TRiO McNair logo, and to Kristine H. Hwang, Assistant Professor in Visual Communication Design.  Also a great big thanks to Sue Wright, Daniel Bigler, Stan Pichinevskiy, and Oliver Davidson in the Children's Studies Department for providing child care.  

  

Dear Conference Guest,

Welcome to the EWU McNair Scholars Conference: Coming Full Circle and Sharing the Legacy.  We are delighted your are attending this exciting and informative two-day conference at EWU.

As a product and now a Director of the EWU TRiO Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program, I affirm that TRiO McNair programs work for first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students!  As of June 2011, our EWU McNair Scholar Program has 11 alumni with doctorates in fields such as molecular and cellular biology, counseling psychology, political science, biology, physical therapy, and experimental psychology. Over seventy-five EWU McNair alumni have earned their Master's degrees; many of these alumni are PhD candidates and will earn doctorates soon.  

After more than 15 successful years, we believe it is time to host the first EWU TRiO McNair Scholars Conference at our EWU campus: Coming Full Circle and Sharing the Legacy.  This conference is an outstanding educational opportunity for McNair alumni to reconnect with Eastern and other McNair alumni as well as to network with current McNair Scholars and inform the campus community of the success of EWU McNair.  It also allows an opportunity for Eastern to attract talented and productive McNair Scholars back to EWU as faculty.  This conference will facilitate the collaboration of current McNair scholars with successful McNair graduate students and with alumni currently holding faculty positions in various universities across the country.  We are privileged and honored to welcome so many wonderful McNair alumni back home.

We hope that you leave this EWU TRiO McNair Conference truly inspired to continue making a difference in our world. Thank you for joining us this weekend.

Sincerely,

Dr. Christina Torres García

EWU McNair Scholars Conference: Coming Full Circle and Sharing the Legacy; Friday July 15^th

Dissertation Research Presentations at Hargreaves Hall, 219

1:00-1:45 pm: Kerensa (DeFord) Allison, PhD

National Project and Local Lessons: Tourism among the Napo Kichwas in the Ecuadorian Amazon

 

The Ecuadorian Amazon is a major tourist attraction. Since the late 1990's there has been a huge push by the Ministry of Tourism to train tour guides for the region.  The focus of the training has been to increase the authentic experience for the tourists and help local people learn the business side of tourism. This paper will explore the lessons learned by the community of Sachayacu, an indigenous farming community in the Ecuadorian Oriente who took advantage of this national tourism development to improve their lives. Unfortunately this national training did not prepare them for the social risks involved.

Dr. Allison completed her dissertation entitled "Manioc mothers: subsistence stability and the influence of tourism among the Napo Kichwas in the Ecuadorian Amazon" in May 2010. She holds a Doctorate in anthropology, a Master's degree in biology, and a Bachelor's degree in biology. She currently work teaches cultural anthropology, gender and cultural ecology classes at Lewis-Clark State College.

 

 

2:00-2:45 pm: Micheal Callaway, PhD

Authentic Performances: The Paradox of Black Identity

Michael Callaway's research looks at how people oversimplify the notion of race when it comes to blackness and complicate the concept by looking at how Afro-Caribbean immigrants came to the US in the early 20th century and carved out a space that was slightly elevated above Black Americans.  My reason for pursuing this path is that the mythology about what it means to be Black in America is solidified and it perpetuates a lot of negative messages.  Most of us who really pay attention to issues of race, gender and ethnicity know that there is a constant push and pull over the perception of groups and there is always room to reshape the message if people work towards that end.  The reasons for wanting change and the desired image may be different, but if diverse groups within the minority push to minimize the negative points, the group's image does change.  The "authentic" is never as stable as it seems.

Dr. Callaway received an MA and PhD from Arizona State University in English with an emphasis in Rhetoric, Composition and Linguistics.  Currently, Dr. Callaway is Residential Faculty at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona, where he teaches writing courses and African American Literature.  Much of his time is spent teaching and developing curriculum for developmental writing courses. He is co-author of the book Argument In Composition and contributed a chapter to the book The WPA Outcomes Statement: A Decade Later.

 

 

3:00-3:45 pm: Nallely Galván, PhD

Nallely Galván's graduate research focused on multicultural issues in counseling and research, women's health, and health disparities among Latinas/os and other underserved groups. Some of these projects have been published in the The Counseling Psychologist, the Journal of Social Oncology, and the Journal of Latino Studies. Her latest research and dissertation project focused on issues of discrimination. This project was fully funded by the U of Illinois Survey Research Institute and was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Research Award by the National Latina/o Psychological Association.

Dr. Galván was born and raised in Mexico City. In the 1990s, her family relocated to the United States making Spokane, Washington her new hometown. With the guidance and support of the McNair Program and her advisor Dr. Russell Kolts, she graduated from EWU in 2001 with a Bachelors' of Art in Psychology. She started her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology at the University of Illinois in 2004 after completing her Masters and Specialist Degree in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University.  She earned her doctorate from University of Illinois in 2011 and currently works as a Staff Psychologist for the Federal Bureau of Prison under the Department of Justice.

 

4:00-4:45 pm: Cuauhtemoc Mexica

Planning a Stellar Dissertation

This presentation will provide tips on how to successfully prepare an exam reading list (in the humanities and social sciences), pass your exams, and prepare for your dissertation prospectus while strategically using all elements in your dissertation.

C.T. Mexica is a doctoral candidate in comparative literature at the University of Washington.  His greatest joys are: the open steppe, a fleet horse, falcons at his wrist, and the wind in his hair.

6:00 to 9:00 pm: Keynote Speaker Banquet at Powers Reading Room, 2nd floor Hargreaves Hall

Martin Meráz García, PhD

Coming full circle: Returning Home to EWU

Dr. Martín Meráz García was born in the State of Michoacán, Mexico where he had his first job as a shoe shiner at the age of 10. In 1989, his mother moved the family to the United States settling in Tri-Cities Washington where they all worked as farm workers. At the age of 12 and before being enrolled in school, Dr. Meráz García worked picking grapes alongside his mother and siblings. Dr. Meráz García graduated from Pasco High School in 1994, he earned his BA in Government and Pre-Law from Eastern Washington University in 1999, his Master's Degree in Criminal Justice and PhD in Political Science from Washington State University in 2003 and 2007 respectively. His areas of specialization include International Relations, Political Psychology and Criminal Justice. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Chicano Studies at Eastern Washington University. Dr. Meráz García has held other positions including a Visiting Assistant Professor of American Government and International Politics at EWU where he has taught courses in political psychology, international relations, comparative politics and American government among others.  He has also thought courses at WSU in criminal justice.

His research interests include the U.S.-Mexico relations with respect to the war on drugs, drug Cartels as well as revolutionary movements in Mexico and other Latin American countries. In the past, Dr. Meráz García has presented his research in various regional, national and international conferences, he has also engaged in field research in Nicaragua as well as in various states in the Pacific Northwest including Washington and Oregon. Current publications include "The Psychology and Recruitment Process of the Narco" in the Global Crime Journal and "Cooperation Among the Nicaraguan Sandinista Factions" in the Latin American Policy Journal. Dr. Meráz García recently completed writing a book on drug trafficking and is currently being reviewed for publication.  

Bruno Baldodano, PhD Candidate

Ordinary People/Extraordinary Accomplishments

Bruno Baltodano is a PhD candidate and instructor in the Department of Political Science at Washington State University in Pullman. He has a B.A in government from EWU and a M.A. in political science from WSU. A native of Nicaragua, Mr. Baltodano immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager. His academic work focuses on political psychology, group dynamics, nationalism and armed insurgencies. He has conducted research on insurgency groups in Colombia, Nicaragua and Iraq. 

                                                                                                           

EWU McNair Scholars Conference: Coming Full Circle and Sharing the Legacy;

Saturday July 16^th

12:00 to 1:00P.M        Raul Garcia, PhD Candidate, University of Washington, Anthropology at Hargreaves Hall

1:00 to 3:00P.M          Discussion Panels at Hargreaves Hall: How to thrive in Graduate School

3:00 to 6:00P.M          BBQ at Hagelin Park

Dear Scholars,

Most of you know that I have dreamed of a McNair reunion for many years and now that it is happening, I am so very grateful to all of you for being here. As the retired head of the McNair family, I feel somewhat like the grandmother who has the privileged role of holding the family history.  I treasure the special relationships that we have together from the past and hope that you find inspiration here at our reunion that will support you as you move forward in your lives and your work.
 

In gratitude,
Karen McKinney, PhD

 

 

 

Persons with special needs may make arrangements for accommodation by calling the McNair Scholar office three business days before the scheduled event at (509) 359-6523.