![\"Baylor](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/mcnair-oct17.jpg\")
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Next year at this time, a select group of students will have earned the coveted title of \u201cMcNair Scholars\u201d for the first time at Baylor. Last month, Baylor was awarded a grant to bring the McNair Scholars Program to campus<\/a>, providing new opportunities for\u00a0underrepresented students and first-generation college students to prepare for doctoral studies in science, technology, engineering and math.<\/p>\n McNair Scholars go through a very competitive process to be selected. Winners find not only financial support for their college career, but experiences that will prepare them for postgraduate studies as well. McNair Scholars<\/a> work with professors on research projects, present at conferences, and prepare for the GRE to build a foundation for doctoral work.<\/p>\n The program is named for Ronald McNair<\/a>, an accomplished physicist and NASA astronaut who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. Funded by the Department of Education, the McNair Scholars program<\/a> is the first of its kind here at Baylor. Over 150 other schools feature the program, giving Baylor McNair Scholars a broad network of nationwide resources and support.<\/p>\n Rachel Renbarger, a Baylor doctoral student in educational psychology, was a McNair scholar before coming to Baylor. She says of the program, \u201cWithout exaggeration, McNair changed my life. I have no doubt that the program is the reason that I made it to graduate school at Baylor and succeeded while here… It gave me a community to overcome the obstacles that come from having a first-generation, low-income background.\u201d<\/p>\n