Doctoral student earns scholarship to conference

Caryn Winters

A doctoral candidate in the College of Communications earned a scholarship to attend the 2008 Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop sponsored by the National Center for the Study of University Engagement (NCSUE).

Caryn Winters, a graduate student studying film and media studies, was one of 15 attendees, including nine from Penn State, who attended the workshop that was conducted at Penn State. She also received admission to the annual National Outreach Scholarship Conference, which was also held at the University.

The program provided advanced doctoral students and early career faculty with background literature, facilitated discussion, mentoring and presentations designed to increase their knowledge and enhance their practice of community-engaged scholarship.

“The workshop was an amazing learning experience. To hear advice and receive feedback from the nation’s top engagement scholars was a privilege and an honor,” said Winters, also the current graduate assistant for Penn State’s Council on Engagement.

“It helped me to further develop skills that will enable me to engage with communities to find innovative ways to address pressing societal issues,” she continued. “My decision to focus on issues of public consequence is deeply rooted in my own views on agency and democratic citizenship, and my desire to build democratic capacity amongst my students, my academic institution and my community.”

Winters was nominated for the workshop by her academic adviser, Jeremy Cohen, Penn State’s associate vice president and senior associate dean for undergraduate education and the director of the Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy.

Winters earned her master’s degree in communication from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and her bachelor’s degree in communication studies and political science from Loyola University in New Orleans.

NCSUE strives to be a preeminent innovator within the scholarly movement of engagement in higher education by deepening the study of and discussion about two key principles—engaged scholarship and the scholarship of engagement—to inform and advance the national agenda.