So our goal: write a perfect grant. We had to!
Nothing like putting on the pressure.
No biggie, we can do this. This
was my second time writing the grant so at least I had experience under my
belt. I also had Maureen. Long story short, Maureen is a McNair scholar,
turned McNair graduate assistant/Ph.D. student and ah-mazing comrade and
partner. Did I mention that Maureen is a
highly skilled writer, communicator, researcher and generally highly knowledgeable
about all-things-McNair? Yeah, she’s
with me.
I enlisted Maureen’s help on the grant and she spent the
greater portion of the spring semester updating all of our sources that
*demonstrate need* for a McNair program at CMU.
I focused on other “goodies” like the plan of operation, budget,
objectives and the like. This time
around, the Department of Education included the "option" for us to address
several “competitive priorities” if we chose to. Certainly a “no brainer” since we needed to accumulate
all the points we could. Suffice it to
say, doing more with less and recruiting more STEM students is the name of the
game!
As an already well-established McNair program producing
Ph.D.’s yearly (we have THREE to date with over twenty more in the Ph.D.
pipeline), we also had the benefit of scoring additional “prior year experience
points” – also an essential item if we were to make the cut! Despite never quite knowing how those prior
year experience points were figured from year to year, the Department actually
told us how they do it during a recent COE conference. Based on that information, we knew that we
would secure all points accessible to us.
Yes!
Things came to a head the week the grant was due which
happened to coincide with both Maureen and I escorting our McNair scholars to a
Graduate School Training Camp hosted by Murray State University in the “far
reaches” of Kentucky. Needless to say,
all of the McNair directors present at camp were pretty darn stressed. We compared notes, shared drafts and told
each other that all we could do was our best.
Okay, that sounds good, right? I
won’t go into the details, but one or two breakdowns (some more major than others)
later, we submitted the grant upon our return.
I have to mention the calm, capable and steady presence of Deborah Clark – our grants person – who took us through every step of the process (which is convoluted to say the least – come on, it’s the federal government) and all I have to say about that is – I love you, Deb. You ROCK! Seriously, other programs that don’t have such awesome grants folks are up a creek plain and simple. This is now our second time through with Deb!
June 7 came and went, and for a while, we chilled. We chilled meaning we didn’t think as much
about the grant. We were in full force
with the Summer Research Institute and working with our current group of
scholars. My stomach returned to normal
and before we knew it, it was getting more challenging to make a turn onto
Mission (meaning students were creeping back!) and school was about to start again. I knew I had to proceed with our normal
recruitment efforts despite not knowing if we would be able to service this
next group of scholars. Talk about
having to muster up some energy and excitement without really having *real*
energy and excitement. Not fun.
Meanwhile, we were receiving almost daily emails from COE (Council
on Opportunity in Education, our DC-based organization that advocates on behalf
of Trio programs) updating us on advocacy efforts to restore McNair funding,
calls to action for alumni, current students and faculty and supporters to sign
petitions and contact their representatives.
No real positive information was coming from Washington despite such
efforts. A good number of McNair
programs were going to be cut nationwide – to the tune of about 75 in all!
My anxiety level rising once again coincided with the start
of the fall semester. Everywhere I went
people were asking me if I knew about our grant it seemed. Nope!
No idea. The last time we wrote
(back in 2007), I distinctly remember attending COE’s annual conference in
Chicago in mid-September and still NOT knowing if we were safe. Our grant expires on September 30 every four
years. We found out September 17 that
CMU made it! You know, it’s always nice
to have some planning time knowing that you will be continuing to run a program
after the next two weeks.
The Department of Education since became notorious for being slow to announce grantees for other Trio programs and the pressure was on to announce not only McNair, but Upward Bound Math and Science and Veterans Upward Bound. Again, in dealing with the federal government, this would be no small feat! One of the primary COE outreach strategies had actually been to postpone the McNair competition until after the elections. Obviously that had not come to fruition.
One day after our program assistant interviews for a new job
(because she doesn’t know if she’ll have a job come the end of the month!), I
wake up to an email from COE stating that the McNair slate, as they call it, is
out. Now, you might think that we would
simply all get emails, or a letter even, telling us YES or NO. Ah, no, that would not be the case. Instead, we all have to go “sleuthing around”
to find out if we are refunded. The Department
sends letters to Congress who then makes this information public. I immediately call my contact in Senator
Stabenow’s office and leave a message.
Doug had called me as soon as our CMU Upward Bound program had been
refunded (yes, CMU rocks!). I then
called my contact in Representative Camp’s office and left a message. Then I called Toby Roth, CMU’s congressional
staff person. Then Mary Montoye called
me for a reference for our program assistant, Julie. Of course, I’m shaking and freaking out. No biggie, I can give Mary a reference, no
problem. The Department of Education since became notorious for being slow to announce grantees for other Trio programs and the pressure was on to announce not only McNair, but Upward Bound Math and Science and Veterans Upward Bound. Again, in dealing with the federal government, this would be no small feat! One of the primary COE outreach strategies had actually been to postpone the McNair competition until after the elections. Obviously that had not come to fruition.
I had just read my two daily emails – one from the Daily
Love (check it if you haven’t - www.dailylove.com, it’s cool!) and the Winner’s Circle – and BOTH
(yes, BOTH) talked about how sometimes life can really throw you big challenges
and that even if the meaning isn’t immediately clear, those challenges make us
stronger. I immediately think: oh my
gosh, we’re not being refunded. I’m
going to be jobless (I’m not even thinking about the scholars – sorry guys – at
this point). I’m mid-conversation with
Mary and my cell beeps in with a 202 number – DC! I say to Mary, “gotta go, call you back” and
pick up. It’s the educational aide from
Camp’s office, I stop breathing and wait.
Ashton says she has GOOD NEWS.
OMG, jumping for joy, happy dance X100, trying to breathe, smiling
uncontrollably, I can’t even believe it.
She got the letter late last night.
CMU IS IN! Wow.
Seriously, I’m dancing around the house (I was home that day
with our babysitter having started fall classes) and everyone was still
sleeping, including Ken. I call
Mary. I get Sue who passes me to Deb who
then passes me back to Mary (they are all in the research office) and we are
all ecstatic together. Couldn’t be
better! Ah-mazing. Who do I call next? My mom, Ken’s mom, Ken finally wakes up to
the good news, I call my friend Pat who also directs a McNair program in
Michigan (she doesn’t know yet if she’s in – she must not have contacts like me
– JUST KIDDING!), I’ve got other director friends emailing me, they don’t know
either. Pure craziness! I text Julie and ask her to send a note to
the scholars. I call and leave a message
for Maureen. I post it on Facebook. Love that!
I think I ended up with about 70 “likes” and a bunch of awesome
comments. McNair unite! The only reason I really got on Facebook in
the first place was to stay connected with our awesome alumni.
It’s been several weeks now since we got the news and I’m
still in shock. After being so deeply stressed (even if I could “ignore”
it on the surface) for so long, it’s
going to take a moment to decompress and get back onto a “normal” track and way
of being. As a matter of fact, I have to
admit that I much prefer this way of being.
I LOVE this way of being. I love
that we can now move forward with recruiting our next cohort knowing that we
will actually have a next
cohort. I love that I can get my current
scholars on track applying to schools this fall and start booking plane tickets
to go and visit their future faculty advisors!
I love that I can continue to move forward with my own coaching training
and become even better at what I do. If
anything, this past year has been a tremendous gift in the form of giving me
the confidence and inspiration to really embrace what I do and take it to a
whole new level. I’m just super
pumped!
It’s been absolutely FANTASTIC walking around campus and sharing the news and
joy! I love that we have such an amazing
support network of faculty, staff and students around campus. It makes this work feel even more special and
amazing than it is. I just returned from
New York after attending COE’s annual conference and I have to tell you – we are
LUCKY! The word on the street isn’t
entirely complete and the fight continues as I write this, but McNair programs
are being cut across the country in significant numbers. Big, long-standing programs with great track
records. While this may be due to the reality
of our current economic situation, I believe that it MAKES OUR WORK AT CMU EVEN
MORE PRESSING and “of the essence.”
Our job is to pluck motivated and curious students from the
crowds. Motivated students that come
from some hard backgrounds but have persevered.
Motivated students who demonstrate a certain curiosity and passion for….SOMETHING…..FOR
LIFE…..and want to take their education to a whole new level. They just might not know exactly how to make
that happen. We work with these amazing
students and get to witness their evolution and growth in a way that most do
not. We get to push, encourage, elevate,
support, excite and witness the growth of our students.
The amount that we learn from our students and this work is simply icing
on the cake. There’s nothing better than
receiving notes from our alumni around the country with their exciting news, or
better yet, having our alumni come back to Mt. Pleasant after receiving their
Ph.D. for a celebratory dinner with faculty, friends and mentors. CMU McNair students ROCK, hands down!
We have our work cut out for us. We couldn’t do it without the amazing faculty
that give of themselves and their time and their expertise. It never ceases to amaze me how many deeply
caring – and interesting and inspiring – individuals we have that work with our
students and support our McNair mission.
It is truly humbling. So, I’d
like to put forth a charge not only for our current scholars, but our future scholars as well. Appreciate this opportunity and take full
advantage of it. McNair is special. You are special. Let us help you keep moving forward in your
journey. Get your Ph.D. and then give
back. Do GREAT things and then help
others do GREAT things. Together we can elevate the McNair
mission to new heights.