1/25/01

Contacts:
Sande McNabb, Plant Pathology, (515) 294-3120
Nina Grant, Ag Minority Programs, (515) 294-1701
Lynda Jacobson, ISU Foundation, (515) 294-4940
Ed Adcock, Ag Communications, (515) 294-2314

CONTRIBUTION HELPS GROW INTERNSHIP FOR MINORITY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Editor's Note: Higher resolution images are available. Please contact the Agriculture Communications contact listed above. Sande McNabb in his lab with last summer's mentee, Youa Yang.

AMES, Iowa -- A gift from a retired Iowa State University professor and his wife will make it possible for minority high school students to spend summers doing research in the plant sciences. Harold "Sande" and Margo McNabb will provide funding of $3,500 a year for one student to participate in the College of Agriculture's Summer Research Internship for Minority Students program. Sande McNabb is an emeritus University Professor who spent 47 years teaching and researching in the departments of forestry and plant pathology. The internship is a six-week paid summer experience for minority high school and college students. They are matched with faculty mentors to conduct research in the students' area of interest. About 15 students from around the nation participate in the internship each summer. "It's very important for high school students to have this kind of research experience," said Nina Grant, the College of Agriculture's director of minority programs. "This contribution allows for the internship program for high school students to grow." McNabb has helped with the program as a mentor since it began in 1994. He has been involved in similar programs with high school students since the 1950s. Although McNabb retired in January 2000, he served as a mentor to an intern last summer. "Of all the programs that I've been involved with at Iowa State this was a program that really had the richness that I had come to expect," McNabb said. Margo McNabb said the couple consider his interns as grandchildren, perhaps because they have none of their own. They also praised the internship because it brings students to the Midwest, what they called the "unknown America." The McNabbs said an endowment will be created after their deaths to fund future internships.

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