McNair Scholars Program
by Shardé M. Davis
Greetings Honors Scholar!!
Thinking Graduate School is in your future? Want to find ways to further your collegiate career? Ready to take the next step toward another degree? I have just the program for you….
Hi! My name is Shardé Davis and I am a third-year Communication and Feminist Studies double major here at UC Santa Barbara. When I was a second year, I was seeking avenues to get involved on this campus that would help me to invest in my future post-undergrad. In spring, one of my advisors approached me about this program preparing students for research and graduate school and encouraged me to apply. I was a extremely apprehensive because I thought that my two years of schooling was not enough to succeed in this program. Also, I was already involved in other things, so I thought that I would not have any time to commit. But once I stepped out on faith and began the work, I discovered that the McNair Scholars Program was the perfect match.
I never would have imagined myself being interested in doing research, but after 5-7 months, I am doing research with a faculty member and preparing to enter into a doctoral program in Communication and Culture studying the inter-workings of the Black family and the communicative strategies they use to sustain their familial unit. Interestingly enough, before McNair, I wanted to move to New York to become a Retail Buyer for Bloomingdales: oh how things have changed!
This program is wonderful because it aims to provide students with quality, one-to-one mentoring while doing undergraduate research and applying for doctoral programs at top universities nation-wide.
The McNair Scholars Program has molded me into a young student scholar and is continuing to provide me with more opportunities while here at UC Santa Barbara. Personally, I have benefited from this program academically because it stretched me as a student scholar and as a leader because it taught me the proper techniques of networking and marketing myself to achieve the goals I set out to accomplish. I really laugh to myself as I look back on the months of agonizing about whether I could handle this additional commitment but once I began during the summer, I realized that I was wrong.
If you know nothing about research or graduate school THAT’S OK! The McNair Scholars Program was designed for students who have not yet acquired the knowledge. I urge all students who are eligible to apply because the perks and benefits of being a McNair Scholar are endless.
To contact the staff, email mcNair@mcnair.ucsb.edu. For additional information, refer to the website at http://www.socialsciences.ucsb.edu/mcnair.html
Cordially,
Shardé M. Davis
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