My Winthrop Experience

Serving as the McNair Scholars director has made Psychology Professor Cheryl Fortner a better teacher. She believes that working with each of the McNair Scholars has fine-tuned her ability to match the university's resources to individual students' aspirations.
 
"McNair has trained my brain to think about each student's path," said Fortner, who is a recipient of the 2017 James Pinckney Kinard and Lee Wicker Kinard Award for Excellence in Teaching Award.

The Kinard Award is given annually to a faculty member who has demonstrated a dedication to teaching and is highly regarded on campus by faculty and students. Established by the Kinard family, it honors former Winthrop President James P. Kinard and his wife, Lee Wicker Kinard.

Fortner joined the Winthrop faculty in 1998 after earning a bachelor's degree in psychology from the College of Charleston, a master's degree in psychology from Western Carolina University and a Ph.D. in child development and family studies from Purdue University. She was promoted to associate professor in 2004 and then to professor in 2016.

One of the reasons she won the teaching award was due to her work with the McNair Scholars Program. In addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate courses, Fortner has directed the university's McNair Scholars Program since 2009. The job has earned her the nickname "Mama McNair" because of the level of nurturing and support she has extended to participants, who are first generation college students and/or who come from underrepresented backgrounds.

Fortner has authored successful McNair grants every five years and has directed the program since its inception.

A key part of the program is a paid summer research experience for the Scholars with faculty mentoring. The students construct either an oral presentation or a poster presentation in one of six categories: education, humanities, health, life science or physical science. They then travel to Atlanta for a weekend to present their research, network with other McNair Scholar students and explore graduate school options.

Fortner returns each summer from the competition to report that Winthrop Scholars have conducted outstanding undergraduate research. At the 2025 Scholars competition, half of the scholars captured a first-, second- or third-place award. Learn more.

Fortner said she and the McNair Scholars go through a lot together as she also helps prep them for graduate school applications and interviews. "I give them my different Mama speeches about professionalism," she added about the time spent preparing the 30+ McNair Scholars selected annually.

The program stands out as one of Winthrop's biggest achievements as measured by the accomplishments of many of its scholars. At last count, 39 Scholars have earned a Ph.D. Check out the list here.

Also, Savannah Stinson recently earned a law degree, while a book written by Aaron Fountain Jr., "High School Students Unite! Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America," was a finalist for the LA Times Book Price in History.

Just as the namesake for the program, Ron McNair, reached for the stars, so do McNair Scholars.