Parchman becomes first NTCC student to present at the National Council on Undergraduate Research

By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director

The National Council on Undergraduate Research or NCUR, dating back to 1978, has become the largest platform for student scholarship in the United States. This year’s spring conference, still virtual, involved over 3,000 students, each presenting unique works of research.  Though Northeast Texas Community College honors students have typically aspired to make the yearly meeting of the more established National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), NCUR with its exclusive focus on student research has become the powerhouse behind a national trend to engage students in activities that could lead to presentations and publications of original work.

Jessie Parchman, a Presidential Scholar from Mount Pleasant became this spring NTCC’s first student to present at NCUR.  With the encouragement of Dr. Melissa Fulgham, and a project in Texas history that Parchman began in the summer of 2021, Parchman qualified for the conference.  She provided a video of her award-winning research that was included in the spring 2022 program this May.

Parchman, in another first, won a second-place, Upper-Division Caldwell Award earlier this spring in Austin for this same work on the “sudden surge” of medicine in Texas during the 1970s.  A highly ambitious young scholar who as a freshman had enough courses to qualify as a junior, she thus surpassed all but one upper-division university student.  She also presented this work at the spring meeting of the state Webb Society.  Parchman argues that a revolution in medicine during the 1970s transformed both Texas and the image of Texas. Before 1970, Texas had a mediocre reputation for medicine, and a relatively weak interface between the public and the medical establishment.  But the decade of the 1970s not only gave Texas a cast of medical heroes such as Denton Cooley, Michael DeBakey, and Red Duke, it became a turning point that first saw the wearing of scrubs and the mass engagement of women with nursing. The Texas Medical Center in Houston rose to world-class status, insurance coverage and costs thanks to Medicare and Medicaid rose to record heights, and yearly checkups, pharmaceutical care, and hospitalization became normative.

Parchman notes about her experience, “it was an amazing opportunity to speak at the national council of undergraduate research. Fortunately, it was virtual this year so I was able to present my work over the sudden surge of the 1970s and resume my campaign for international office in Denver, Colorado.”

Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox, believes that “Parchman has excelled as a scholar and student ambassador at NTCC.  She was our first area student that I know of, still in high school to win acceptance to present at a professional meeting, in this case, the East Texas Historical Association.  She presented at that conference in Nacogdoches back in October.  I was so impressed to learn how she had conducted many experiments of her own through her earlier high school years. I remain impressed when I experience her lucid, thoughtful presentations today.  Most recently, I witnessed her presentation on tooth brushing that developed out of an interdisciplinary honors project in microbiology and biology, mentored by professors Lesa Presley, and Jim Ward.

Jessie is the daughter of Jeff and Jamie Parchman of Mount Pleasant