McNair Scholars Program’s Black History Month Fine Arts Contest Features Talents of USM Students

Fri, 03/18/2022 - 06:00am | By: David Tisdale

The Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) invited the creativity of the USM student community for its 2022 Black History Month competition.

The McNair Scholars Program Black History Month competition began as an essay contest before evolving into a fine arts competition for 2022, inspired by a collaborative planning effort, said program director Daleana Phillips.

“We have many talented students here at USM studying the creative arts, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, music, dance, theater, creative writing, and poetry,” Phillips continued. “We wanted to open the competition to include multiple types of creative expression for capturing the significance of Black History Month and create an opportunity for students to interactively engage with Black History and not just consume it.”

The competition was open to all undergraduate students at USM, who were asked to use their varied talents to express the significance of Black History Month. More than 30 submissions were made, which were internally narrowed down into a top 20 and placed on exhibition for students, faculty, and staff Feb. 28 at the J.B. George Building. Visitors to the exhibition cast their votes for the winners.

Students submitted artwork depicting Black mental health, family, achievements, persisting inequalities, and more. “We were very pleased to see the variety of expressions about Black life and experience presented in the submissions,” Phillips noted.

McNair Scholars Program Coordinator Dr. Jessica Love concurs. “The variety of submissions illustrated student’s desire to explore and know more about Black life,” Love said. “We were impressed with all the talented pieces of art, music, dance, songs, and poetry that we received.”

The top three winners of the competition earned prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250, respectively. They include:

First place: “Pioneers of Black History” - Uyen-Ny Nguyen, art major

Second place: “B-WIN” - Alexander Haastrup, computer engineering Major

 

*Third place: “Your Voice Counts” – Skylar Boyd, art major

The McNair Scholars Program at USM was established in 1999 and honors Dr. Ronald E. McNair, an astronaut killed on the Challenger space shuttle in 1986. The primary goal of the program is to increase the number of doctoral degrees amongst minority populations and underrepresented groups in the academy. Its undergraduate scholars are required to participate in a research program, which includes summer classes and mentoring by a faculty researcher and graduate assistant. The research program results in a completed scholarly research paper and formal academic presentation made at the annual McNair Symposium.

For more information about the McNair Scholars Program at USM, visit https://www.usm.edu/mcnair-scholars-program/.