University of Minnesota TRIO McNair Scholars Program

Introducing 2024 McNair Scholar, Ashley Ynglada! Ashley is a rising junior majoring in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, and originally from Orlando, FL. Her research will be centered around analyzing speech patterns of Spanish-English bilingual children’s language samples in order to contribute to growth in data that will develop a better way of assessing bilingual children who may have a developmental language disorder. A fun fact about her is that she used to actively participate in Taekwondo when she was younger (from 3 yrs to 12 yrs old) and used to participate in tournaments with other dojos. Ashley was interested in participating in the McNair Scholars program because she wanted to have the opportunity to learn more about what research was like in her field. Additionally, knowing she would need to go to grad school, Ashley knew McNair could assist her in navigating towards that goal. College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Thank you to 2024 Faculty Mentor, Dr. Kerry Ebert! Extraordinary faculty mentors from across the University of Minnesota system who volunteer their time and expertise are key to McNair Scholar success. Mentors like Dr. Ebert help McNair Scholars through their mentorship and research. Dr. Ebert is an Associate Professor in the Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences Department at the University of Minnesota. She earned her PhD from the University of Minnesota and focuses on children's speech-language disorders within a linguistically diverse society. An award-winning scholar, Dr. Ebert received the Editor's Award in Language from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in 2015 and worked as a speech-language pathologist from 2004 to 2011. Currently, as Director of the Child Language Disorders Across Diverse Contexts (CLDC) Lab, her research explores the cognitive-linguistic profiles of bilingual and monolingual children with developmental language disorders, aiming to improve assessment and treatment services. Thank you, Dr. Ebert, for your research and vision for the future! College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Introducing 2024 McNair Scholar, Ricardo Vazquez Montero! Ricardo will be a junior majoring in developmental psychology and minoring in psychology and neuroscience. Ricardo grew up in Winter Haven, Florida, and is where he considers home. A fun fact about Ricardo is that he is an avid concertgoer. Ricardo was interested in the McNair program because he is interested in attending graduate school and focusing on research, he also wants to help make psychology research a more diverse and inclusive field. His research will focus on investigating the associations that neighborhood deprivation such as lack of resources and low socioeconomic status can have on normative adolescent brain development and whether community cohesion or school engagement can help buffer these potential associations. College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Thank you to 2024 Faculty Mentor, Dr. Sylia Wilson! Extraordinary faculty mentors from across the University of Minnesota system who volunteer their time and expertise are key to McNair Scholar success. Mentors like Dr. Wilson help McNair Scholars through their mentorship and research. Dr. Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University and specializes in the developmental etiology of psychopathology, focusing on major depression and substance abuse. She leads the Family Cognitive Affective Neurodevelopment (Fam CAN) Lab, which integrates developmental, clinical, and neuroscience methods to study neural and behavioral processes from infancy to adulthood. Dr. Wilson's research investigates how early familial and environmental adversity affects neurodevelopment, aiming to inform effective prevention and intervention programs for at-risk populations. Thank you, Dr. Wilson, for your research and vision for the future!

Introducing 2024 McNair Scholar, Laichia Vang! Born and raised in St. Paul, MN, Laichia Vang (they/she) is a rising Senior studying Political Science, Sociology, and Racial Justice in Urban Schooling at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Laichia is the Program Director of Youth Empowerment at StoryArk, and is involved with the University of Minnesota’s Asian Pacific American Resource Center, Asian American Studies Program, the Liberal Arts for Engagement Hub, and YoUthROC. Laichia is interested in youth activism, critical pedagogy, education justice, and community engagement. They joined the McNair Scholars Program because they wanted to learn more about graduate school, conduct research, and create connections with peers from similar backgrounds. Laichia's research will delve into the realm of young people who transition from program participants to key leaders, shaping and guiding initiatives within their extracurricular activities. They aim to understand the process and impact of youth leadership roles in extracurricular activities by conducting interviews, observations, and archival analysis. In their free time, she enjoys finding free food and events in the Twin Cities, cooking meals with high protein, and working on their drag artistry. College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Thank you to 2024 Faculty Mentor, Dr. Teresa Swartz! Extraordinary faculty mentors from across the University of Minnesota system who volunteer their time and expertise are key to McNair Scholar success. Mentors like Dr. Swartz help McNair Scholars through their mentorship and research. Dr. Swartz is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota. She earned her PhD from the University of California and specializes in intergenerational relations, gender, families, social inequality, and Asian American studies. Her active research projects include studying the transition to adulthood and its effects on family relationships, investigating extracurricular activities of diverse youth, and examining parenting practices among second-generation Asian Americans. Dr. Swartz's work aims to deepen our understanding of social dynamics and inequalities across generations and communities. Thank you, Dr. Swartz, for your research and vision for the future! College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Introducing 2024 McNair Scholar, Dorothea Tse! Dorothea is majoring in Psychology with a minor in integrative neuroscience from Seattle, WA. She enjoys baking (shout out to her parents and brother for being her guinea pigs) and snowboarding in her free time and when season allows. Dorothea was interested in joining the McNair program because she hopes to meet scholars who also pursue academic excellence and share similar backgrounds, while developing various research skills and relationships with her mentor and lab members. This summer, Dorothea will continue her journey with Professor Tithof and her lab members to research on the glymphatic system from the fluid dynamics perspective. College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Thank you to 2024 Faculty Mentor, Dr. Jeff Tithof! Extraordinary faculty mentors from across the University of Minnesota system who volunteer their time and expertise are key to McNair Scholar success. Mentors like Dr. Tithof help McNair Scholars through their mentorship and research. Dr. Tithof is a Benjamin Mayhugh Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He earned his PhD in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and specializes in fluid mechanics. His research combines laboratory experiments and numerical simulations to explore fluid flows and the glymphatic system, a waste clearance pathway in the brain relevant to neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease. An accomplished researcher and enthusiastic teacher, Dr. Tithof's work aims to develop new insights and improve forecasting in fluid mechanics. Thank you, Dr. Tithof, for your research and vision for the future! University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering

Introducing 2024 McNair Scholar, Tomas Sepulveda! Tomas will be a junior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in both Pharmacology and Chemistry. Tomas has lived in Mounds View, MN, for over 15 years. A fun fact about Tomas is that his family is from Chile, with the majority of his family still living and working in the country.? ? Tomas wanted to participate in McNair to deepen his growing research experience with a faculty-driven project that will prepare him for graduate school, while also exposing him to a program full of underrepresented students who have diverse backgrounds and experiences collaborating to navigate the pathway to higher education. ? Tomas’s research will be focused on developing new molecules with anti-inflammatory properties, targeting the epigenetic underpinnings of inflammation and its onset. This research is something Tomas wants to extend beyond the summer into a longer project. University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences

Thank you to 2024 Faculty Mentor, Dr. William Pomerantz! Extraordinary faculty mentors from across the University of Minnesota system who volunteer their time and expertise are key to McNair Scholar success. Mentors like Dr. Pomerantz help McNair Scholars through their mentorship and research. Dr. Pomerantz is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and specializes in chemical biology, organic synthesis, and bioanalytical chemistry. His research focuses on developing chemical probe molecules to study protein-protein interactions using innovative chemistry and structural biology approaches. Dr. Pomerantz has received numerous accolades, including the McKnight Presidential Fellow, Guillermo E. Borja Career Development Award, and the National Science Foundation CAREER award. He also co-leads the International Chemical Biology Society Global Council, showcasing his leadership and contributions to the field. Thank you, Dr. Pomerantz, for your research and vision for the future! University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering