Undergraduate Racquel West, a sophomore double major in Geography and History, was named as a McNair Scholar in the 2018 cohort. The McNair Scholars Program is designed to support highly qualified underrepresented students whose ultimate academic goal is a Ph.D. Qualifications for this honor include academic excellence and extracurricular involvement. West served as vice chair of Washington Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG) and is also a member of the Sustainability Action Network and the Voter Engagement Committee.
This academic year, West is completing the History honors program, working on a research project about territorial marker signs and boundaries on Native American reservations. Next year, she plans to continue this work in the Geography honors program. Further into the future, West wants “to combine her two loves (history and geography) and get a Ph.D. in historical geography.”