How do neuropeptides affect growth and development in hawk moths? How did the 1918 influenza epidemic change how Americans deal with death and dying? What is the status of social development among Portland’s Hispanic children? McNair Scholars at the University of Oregon on Thursday and Friday will be sharing what they’ve learned in these and a dozen or more other summer research projects. They are participating in the first of what will become the annual McNair Scholars Symposium at the University of Oregon. Nineteen undergraduate students, who have completed their sophomore or junior years and are from low-income families and groups that are underrepresented in graduate school, are giving graduate school a try this summer, thanks to the McNair Scholars Program. Gail Unruh, coordinator, explains that the rigorous summer academic program and its emphasis on scholarly research gives students a step up in getting ready to succeed in graduate school. The two-year program also helps students develop "a sense of personal validation, a comfort of belonging to the institution that a lot of the low-income, first-generation students just don’t have." Jointly funded by the host school and the U.S. Department of Education, the McNair Scholars program is named after the late NASA astronaut Robert McNair, who died in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. McNair, born in poverty, rose to earn a doctorate from MIT and become the second African-American to fly in space. The UO’s McNair Scholars will begin presenting their research projects Thursday at 10 a.m., Room 184 of the Knight Law Center, 1515 Agate St., after a 9 a.m. keynote address, "The Power and Promise of Research," by Carla Gary, director of multicultural affairs. For a full schedule of the two days of presentations and to arrange to interview students, call Unruh. SOURCE: Gail Unruh, coordinator of the McNair Scholars Program, Academic Learning Services, 346-3226.

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