College of Education associate dean recognizes outstanding doctoral students with inaugural research fellowships

Faculty in Clemson’s College of Education recently recognized three students as the college’s first associate dean research fellows. The fellowship rewards doctoral students who are leaders among their peers in the area of research.

According to Jeff Marshall, interim associate dean for research and graduate studies in the college, the fellowship is designed to recognize students who have excelled in their area of research and help provide leadership in their program area. The first recipients are Leslie Lewis, Kathy Li and Stephanie Schenck.

“The fellows’ research focus areas might be different, but what they have in common is an innovative approach to important issues in education that will surely lead to positive impacts,” Marshall said. “College faculty are proud to recognize these students as promising new leaders in education research.”

Lewis is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in educational leadership with an emphasis on higher education. She is an academic librarian by profession and is seeking a doctorate so that she can teach at the university level or pursue leadership positions in higher education. Her dissertation is on women and leadership development at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she also earned her undergraduate degree.

Li came to the United States from China in 2014 to pursue a Ph.D. in Clemson’s learning sciences program. She is currently working on her dissertation, which investigates the role of massively multiplayer online role-playing games on vocabulary acquisition for English language learners. She plans to continue her research in the field of game-based learning at a research university.

Schenck, who taught high school Spanish for 10 years before coming to Clemson, is pursuing a Ph.D. in literacy, language and culture. She said the program perfectly complements her interests in second language literacy. She is currently studying the experiences of rural, world-language teachers, which is a teacher population that experiences lower-than-average retention rates.

The fellowship carries a one-year award of $3,000 to any stipend or assistantship. Applicants are able to re-apply in subsequent years depending on funding availability. Marshall said he looks forward to the college continuing the fellowship in future academic years.

“The fellowships are a great way to recognize outstanding work by our current doctoral students,” Marshall said. “We look forward to seeing what these students discover through their research and how they will encourage future students to more fully develop and pursue their research interests.”

END