Student Profiles – Alina Clay

June 30, 2016 by bharve20

Student Profiles – Alina Clay

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Alina Clay

During the summer of 2015, Alina Clay was selected as a recipient of the 2015 Undergraduate Summer Research Internship funded by UT’s Office of Research & Engagement to advance her senior project. Her research topic is a comparative analysis of subnational governments in Latin America and Eastern Europe to determine how decentralization affects women’s political participation. She has devised three hypotheses that address issues of institutional political structure, representation, and participation. To refute or support these hypotheses, she will conduct an in-depth, over time country analysis of this topic in Peru and Russia.

This internship covered her stay in Lima, Peru for several weeks to acquire a more holistic understanding of Peru’s complex social and political system, and to gain access to relevant data sources not available in the United States. She visited several universities and organizations that offered resources related to her senior project topic and made contacts with people experienced in her research interests. Alina also had the opportunity to assist Jana Morgan, associate professor of political science at UT, with her field research on social inequality and political participation in Peru. Morgan’s field research complements Alina’s senior project, enriching her knowledge of her research interests and advancing research skills that are critical to her future academic and career goals. In addition to her research pursuits, Alina also had the opportunity to stay in a Spanish-speaking household and travel around Lima, both of which have solidified her Spanish proficiency and given her a more in-depth understanding of Peruvian culture. During the summer of 2016 Alina will be a Pickering Undergraduate Foreign Affairs Fellow in Washington, DC.

Student Profiles – Brandon Darr

June 30, 2016 by bharve20

Student Profiles – Brandon Darr

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Brandon Darr

At the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, Brandon was a participant in the 2015 cohort of the Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) Summer Research Initiative (SRI), a program that simulates graduate school research through an intensive eight-week research experience with multi-level mentoring and collaborating. He worked in UMD’s Language Development and Perception Lab with Rochelle Newman, Chair of Hearing and Speech Sciences and Associate Director of the Language Science Center. Brandon was drawn to a study in Newman’s lab focused on the effects of bilingual parents’ codeswitching (alternating between two languages) with their infants, which have immediate implications for Brandon’s larger research interest: how teachers can provide an inclusive classroom environment that simultaneously supports first language maintenance and English language acquisition. Through the SRI program, he analyzed preliminary data for the study and subsequently developed a follow-up assessment looking at language outcomes in bilingual children after more language exposure. In the future, Brandon hopes to apply what he learned about bilingual children to help teachers become more aware of language development differences in the classroom. In May Brandon moved to Bangkok, Thailand, to teach English to more than 250 fourth and fifth grade students at Mater Dei School, an all-girls Catholic school.

Student Profiles – Dylan Haywood

June 30, 2016 by bharve20

Student Profiles – Dylan Haywood

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Dylan Haywood

Graduating senior Dylan Haywood received the generous Dwight and Katie Wade Scholarship last spring to support her travel to Ireland during the summer of 2015. There, she worked as an intern for Le Chéile, a nonprofit organization developed in Ireland’s criminal justice reform movement, offering mentoring and justice support services to youth offenders and their families. Dylan attended prison visitations, Young Persons Probation services meetings, and worked with the head manager of the only restorative justice project in Ireland. In addition, Dylan represented Le Chéile at the 2015 Annual Irish Criminal Justice Agencies Conference, where she spoke to members of Irish Parliament and the current Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald. She also had the opportunity to travel to the most serious conflict zones of Ireland, Germany, and Northern Ireland. Dylan has just completed her senior project on the linkages between mass incarceration and inequality in communities of color. In fall 2016 she will begin graduate studies in criminology at the University of Delaware.

College Scholars Program Continues to Thrive

June 30, 2016 by bharve20

College Scholars Program Continues to Thrive

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By JEFFREY KOVAC, Director College Scholars Program

The past year and a half have been busy and productive for the College Scholars Program (CSP). We have established an alumni advisory board to work with the director to strengthen the program. Our website has been redesigned and now includes an on-line alumni directory. We have admitted twenty-six new students since January 2015 and twenty-two have graduated. Students in the CSP continue to prove that they are arguably the most talented and interesting students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As usual, there were some truly amazing senior projects both in 2015 and 2016.

Because of the generosity of our alumni and friends, we can provide financial support to the scholars to pursue their individual academic goals. Scholarships for tuition and other expenses are important, but we can also provide support for senior projects, to allow travel to conferences to present their research or to learn things that are not part of the UT curriculum. Every year, it seems, more and more students are requesting financial support for travel to professional meetings where they will be presenting their research. This is a positive development, but it is straining the budget.

Another development is that more students are seeking internships to gain more practical experience. Sometimes these are paid, but more often the students are volunteers. A summer internship away from home can be transforming, but it can also be expensive. Every effort is made to provide financial help from the College Scholars Program.

Because of these new developments, the Alumni Advisory Board and I, with the help of the Arts and Sciences Development Office staff, will be talking to alumni about the financial needs of the program. When I meet with CSP alumni, they usually say that the College Scholars Program was what set the stage for their future careers. In my years as director, I have seen how the scholars mature both personally and academically and they progress through the program. In taking command of their education, these young men and women blossom. They also quickly become fiercely loyal to the program.

Dean Alvin Nielsen and the founding director, Harry Jacobson, had a vision for a unique honors program at UT. I think they knew they were creating something special, but I don’t know that they knew how special the program would become. I am proud and humbled to have become part of this remarkable endeavor.