CarolBishopRecently, Carol Bishop became the first of her cohort to achieve tenure status as University faculty. Bishop participated in the first group of McNair Scholars in 2004 and as of July 2015 became tenured as an Extension Educator in Northeast Clark County for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.

“Finding the McNair Scholars Program was a blessing,” added Bishop. McNair participants are either first-generation college students with financial need, or members of a group that is traditionally underrepresented in graduate education.”

The purpose of the program is to increase the diversity of academic and administrative faculty on college campuses. As a first generation, low-income, non-traditional (mature) college student, the McNair program exposed Bishop to a different world, one she had never experienced before. Bishop found it eye-opening that there is a whole world that comes with the benefits of a higher income level attained through higher educational degrees.

“Even though I knew I was smart as an undergraduate, I still had very low self-esteem because of my societal standing and being low-income. To say that I’m faculty now — I’m still amazed by it,” added Bishop.

“As Extension faculty for the land grant university, my purpose is to develop and implement need-based community based education programs,” explained Bishop. Her first objective was to conduct a needs assessment of the community to discover the highest needs.

Bishop’s 2010 assessment for Northeast Clark County identified the top need of the communities as jobs, jobs and jobs. That was the height of the job slump in Nevada, so most concerns revolved around economic needs. People cared about unemployment, the increasing cost of utilities, no job training, the high cost of goods and services, etc. Using the information from the needs assessment, Bishop identified and developed programing to meet needs, including help for small and home-based businesses.

“I work in Moapa Valley, and at one time this area was a large-scale agricultural community,” added Bishop. “The area still identifies itself as having agricultural values and one of the things I’ve helped people with is starting small farming operations.”

“I love working for the University and helping people in my community. It’s never too late for anybody to get an education!” Contact Bishop at 702-397-2604 or email bishopc@unce.unr.edu.