[316] Minority Fellows at MTSU enrich academic quality

Feb. 20, 2009

Minority Fellows at MTSU enrich academic quality


MURFREESBORO—What do the following have in common? “Family Violence under a Multicultural Perspective in Colombia” … “The Role of Hydrogen Peroxide in the Cell Cycle Regulation of Endothelial Cell Proliferation” … “A Predictive Model to Identify High School Dropouts in a Rural Mississippi School District.”
These are dissertation topics of Esperanza Camargo, Ogbeyalu Onumah, and Mario Antonio Owens, respectively, recipients of Middle Tennessee State University’s Underrepresented Minority Dissertation Fellowships.
MTSU actively recruits minority graduate students across the nation who are pursuing fields of study in which minorities are typically underrepresented. Esperanza Camargo, from Colombia, most recently attended the University of Nebraska. Ogbeyalu Onumah attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville and before that Oberlin College in Ohio. Mario Antonio Owens has degrees from Grambling State University and the University of Arkansas.
The three scholars are not only working toward their Ph.D.s, but they also serve as full-time faculty at Middle Tennessee State University, receiving salaries of $30,000 each, plus medical insurance. Camargo is on the faculty in the criminal justice administration department, Onumah in the chemistry department and Owens in the business communication and entrepreneurship department.
As if research and teaching were not enough to keep them fully occupied, Camargo, Ogbeyalu and Onumah will serve on a panel and speak to McNair Program scholars on Tuesday, Feb. 24, from 4:30 to 5:50 p.m. in KOM 123. McNair Scholars, named after Ronald E. McNair, the NASA astronaut who perished in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion, are undergraduate students at MTSU who are preparing for graduate study. They are either first-generation college students who need financial assistance or underrepresented minority students.
“We’re delighted to have them talk to our undergraduate students,” commented Steve Saunders, assistant director of the McNair Program. “McNair students can hear firsthand what it takes to succeed in graduate school, what the challenges are and how to deal with those challenges. Given the workload the Minority Fellows at MTSU have, they are surely experts on good time management, one of the most important skills required of graduate students.”
All three fellows/instructors began their work at MTSU in August 2008, and all three plan to defend their dissertations this coming May, Saunders noted.