Although Ronald McNair died tragically in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, his legacy continues through the CU-Boulder Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program named in honor of the African-American astronaut.
The McNair program prepares selected CU-Boulder undergraduates for graduate study at the doctoral level. Fourteen accomplished McNair Scholars will graduate this year and several have been offered and accepted fellowships to major universities.
The federal program is one of four administered by the CU-Boulder Student Academic Services Center to help American citizens and permanent residents overcome class, social, academic and cultural barriers in order to enter college and graduate. The programs are funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The 2000 McNair graduates, their fields of study and future plans are:
* Tawanna French, psychology, will attend the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.
* Carol Parenteau, double degree in art history and studio arts, nominated to graduate summa cum laude in art history, fellowship at CU-Boulder for the master's degree program in art history.
* Laura Segrue, master's degree in higher education administration, received fellowship, tuition waiver and $11,500 academic stipend at Syracuse University.
* Tyson Lewis, summa cum laude in art history, will attend the University of Denver on a full fellowship.
* Rebecca Boyd, magna cum laude in political science/international affairs, will attend the College of William and Mary in public policy on a full fellowship.
* Colleen Martin, CU Student Employee of the Year in 1999 and Colorado State Student Employee of the Year in 1999, will enroll in the professional photography program at Colorado Mountain College next fall and then will pursue a doctoral degree.
* Janeen Pesiridis, magna cum laude in geography, will take a year off to finalize her selection of graduate programs.
* Judy Choi, cum laude in English and psychology, will take time to recoup from her double honors and will fine tune her plans for graduate study.
* Natalie Edwards, speech, language and hearing sciences, is waiting to hear if she will be doing graduate work at CU in speech. She also is exploring options to work as a speech therapist in Denver area elementary schools.
* Juan Camacho, international affairs/political science; is working in Boulder and taking a few weeks to trek across Europe this summer. He plans to apply to graduate school.
* Mike Tanner, geology, is taking a year off to work and explore graduate schools.
* Samatra Doyle, sociology, is taking time to work at the Boulder Police Department while deciding about graduate schools.
* Kimberley Henderson, environmental, population and organismic biology, is taking a year to decide whether she wants to pursue biology or education in graduate school.
* Natalie Beal, political science, is in the process of applying to the public policy graduate program at CU-Denver.
* Robyn Autry, a 1999 McNair graduate, will attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she has received several awards to complete her doctorate in human ecology, including a two-year Advanced Opportunity Fellowship and a three-year traineeship in the Integrated Graduate Education Training Program, with full tuition, housing and health benefits.