Seven McNair Scholars ready for Spring Commencement

As 315 graduates participate in commencement exercises on Saturday, seven represent the McNair Scholars program at OLLU. The McNair program was created in honor of Ronald E. McNair, an astronaut-physicist and member of the Challenger crew, in 1986. The program strives to increase the numbers of underrepresented groups in graduate education by providing enriching experiences, support and guidance to program participants.

The following are the Spring 2012 McNair Scholar graduates, their majors and their research topics:

• Sonia Bernal
  Major: Psychology/Philosophy double major
  McNair research: The role of religion and their community in fulfilling the needs of Catholic religious sisters
  
  
• Ana Flores
  Major: Psychology (dual concentration in pre-counseling and research)
  Minor: Spanish with Biliterate Certificate
  McNair research: A qualitative study of psychology graduate students training as bilingual therapists and working in Spanish-speaking training teams
  
  
• Veronica Garay
  Major: Psychology
  Minor: Religious Studies
  McNair research: Does the degree of intolerance of uncertainty influence whether subjects adopt ego-moving or time-moving spatial metaphor of the self when considering a future event
  
  
• Elizabeth Holguin
  Major: Biology/Mathematics double major
  Minor: Chemistry
  McNair research: (1) Exploring a new theory: creating n-PODs with algorithms; (2) Leech parasitism in turtles inhabiting Elmendorf Lake 
  
  
• Jesse Rojas
  Major: Mathematics
  Minor: Spanish
  McNair research: (1) Cyclic sum and different sets; (2) The eternal triangle
  
  
• Flor Salas
  Major: Communication Arts with a track in public relations
  Minor: Business, Biliterate Certificate
  McNair research: Social media as a source of news among college students 
  
  
• Loren Torres
  Major: Biology
  McNair research: Factors affecting the number of days of care for diabetes-related hospital admissions