Dr. Donna Summerlin with Lee’s McNair Scholars in Maryland
Nine Lee University students attended the 26th Annual McNair Scholars Research Conference at the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus. The students who attended the conference – Judith Bell, Kati Coats, Alex Gann, Cassidy Gray, Torah Harding-Laman, Tamia Jordan, Elizabeth Landry, Brittney Perez, and Audriana Trevino – represented a range of majors including anthropology, digital media, English, and pre-med.
Five of the participating students presented their research. Ms. Bell presented “Like Mother, Like Daughter: Parental Expectations in Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use,’” Ms. Coats presented “Assessing the Reach of the 4th Amendment: A Matter of Property,” Ms. Harding-Laman presented “Wai Wah! (‘Let’s Go!’): Tsimshian and Language Revitalization in Southeast Alaska,” Ms. Perez presented “The Portrayal of the Latino Culture in Young Adult Literature,” and Ms. Trevino presented “Identity: An Ethnographic Study on Latinx College Students in Appalachian Bible Belt.”
“All five presenters were positively received,” said Dr. Donna Summerlin, who accompanied the students on the trip. “The moderator for one of our sessions commented that she found our students’ presentations to be truly outstanding.”
Dr. Summerlin joined the Lee University faculty in 1988 and currently serves as the chair of Lee’s Department of Language and Literature.
While at the conference, students were able to network with scholars from other institutions around the country, tour the graduate programs at Johns Hopkins, and meet representatives from a number of other graduate programs.
“I was blown away by the opportunities that this program is providing for our students,” said Dr. Summerlin. “I was also blown away by the quality of work being done by our students, as well as many of the others I encountered there.”
Lee University began its McNair Scholars program in October 2017 upon receipt of a Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program grant, a federal TRIO Program within the U.S. Department of Education. This conference opportunity for Lee’s McNair Scholars was funded in part by the federal grant.
For more information about the McNair Scholars program, visit http://leeuniversity.edu/mcnair/.