DR. JEFF MCKINNON, Director of Undergraduate Research: "Scientists actually do science, not because we get fabulously well-to-do and not because we get famous. We do it because we actually think it's fun."
DON'T BE FOOLED, THOUGH PROFESSOR JEFF MCKINNON LIKES TO HAVE FUN WITH HIS WORK, HE TAKES IT VERY SERIOUSLY.
MCKINNON: "I'm interested in big questions of why we are how we are and where we came from. And so what I do ties evolutionary biology and philosophy… to animals."
MCKINNON IS DEVOTED TO LEARNING, BUT HE DIDN'T START OUT THAT WAY.
MCKINNON: "As a kid, there was no pressure on me in school."
HE GREW UP IN VANCOUVER, CANADA AND STARTED LEARNING BIOLOGY… IN THE STREET.
MCKINNON: "My interests are fish and animals. I spent my youth wandering around the ditches in front of my house."
HE BECAME THE FIRST IN HIS FAMILY TO GO TO COLLEGE… AND BARELY GOT INTO A LOCAL UNIVERSITY… SO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT WAS A SURPRISE.
MCKINNON: "As it turned out, I could get really good grades. At some point, somebody explained to me that if you get high enough grades, everything else will be paid for and so then I really got serious about it."
HE GOT SCHOLARSHIPS ALONG THE WAY AND ENDED UP WITH A PhD FROM HARVARD.
LIKE HIS ADVISOR, KENNY FORMBY IS THE FIRST FROM HIS FAMILY TO ATTEND COLLEGE…
KENNY FORMBY, UW-Whitewater student: "My parents think that me wanting to go to grad school is an absurd kind of notion."
EMILY CASTENLLANOS, UW-Whitewater student: "No one in my family's gone to college."
MCKINNON: "I know where they're coming from."
AND AT HARVARD, HE LEARNED TO HELP THEM GET… WHERE THEY WANT TO GO.
MCKINNON: "There were a lot of folks there who's job was to help students figure out how to be successful. I wanted to take that philosophy and that ethic and bring it here."
AS DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AT UW-WHITEWATER, MCKINNON WANTS TO GET STUDENTS EXCITED ABOUT RESEARCH.
MCKINNON: "So there's going to be this mutually reinforcing process where the students are getting fired up, it's inspiring the faculty and everybody's moving forward."
AND HE'S PUSHING STUDENTS TO DO SOMETHING THAT WORKED FOR HIM.
EMILY: "I think I'm going to have a paper published by the time I graduate."
MCKINNON: "And that was the key to getting subsequent scholarships."
KENNY: "If you have any kind of publication or any kind of academic work before you try to enter grad school, that's gonna be huge."
RAYMOND FOHTUNG, UW-Whitewater student: "I think it's important to have a mentor like him."
MCKINNON HAS BEEN AT UW-WHITEWATER FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, DESPITE OPPORTUNITIES TO WORK AT PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
MCKINNON: "I wouldn't feel as connected to that group of students."
MORE THAN HALF OF THE UNDERGRADS HERE ARE JUST LIKE HIM… FIRST GENERATION STUDENTS… AND THIS IS WHERE HE BELIEVES HE CAN REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
MCKINNON: "A lot of it comes from being a parent. You just care about helping young people because that's just what you do as a parent."
KENNY: "Jeff is pretty much like my academic family."
AND LIKE A PARENT… HE'S NOT AFRAID TO BE TOUGH TO HELP A KID SUCCEED.
MCKINNON: "You need to have high expectations for yourself and push yourself."
KENNY: "He's not afraid to tell me when I'm doing stuff right and not afraid to tell me when I'm doing stuff wrong."
MCKINNON: "And sometimes that's uncomfortable but that's necessary."
RAYMOND: "Academically I'd say he watches over me."
EMILY: "I think it's gonna help me a lot."
MCKINNON: "I'll sometimes see students tell me, I'm doing the best I can and I'll say that is not the best you can do, so what you need to do is realize what the best you can do is and it's way better than that."
HE'S BEEN THERE… AND KNOWS HOW TO MAKE THE JOURNEY FULFILLING… AND FUN.