School Updates
Student News and Awards
News about student accomplishments
Doctoral student LauraEllen Ashcraft received a second year of funding from the National Institutes of Health for her Clinical and Translational Science Fellowship. The fellowship is a translational research training program for pre- and postdoctoral students who find innovative ways to advance research from initial discovery through improved patient outcomes and health policy.
Doctoral student Kess Ballentine received the National Association of Social Workers Foundation’s 2019-20 Eileen Blackey Doctoral Fellowship. The fellowship provides partial support to social work doctoral candidates who are engaged in dissertation research in welfare policy and practice.
MSW student Rochelle Burks received a Census 2020 Outreach Grant from Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development. She created a short animated video encouraging fellow Beaver County, Pennsylvania, residents to complete the census.
Doctoral students Laurenia Mangum and Cortney VanHook were named 2020-21 Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) minority fellows. The CSWE Minority Fellowship Program is designed for doctoral students who are preparing for leadership roles in practice, research, teaching, and/or policy promulgation in the areas of mental health and/or substance abuse with racial/ ethnic minorities.
Mangum also received a prestigious award from the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs. She was selected for a 2020 Go Beyond MCH Graduate Student Scholarship, which provides leadership development opportunities to emerging leaders in maternal and child health research.
Serwaa Omowale, a joint PhD/Master of Public Health student, received a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Her research project will focus on understanding the relationship among stress, discrimination, and adverse birth outcomes.
MSW student and Student Executive Council President Daisia Williams received the George F. and Mary Ann McGunagle Award through the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh. She plans to use the funds to travel to Uganda in summer 2021 to work with the nonprofit Bright Kids Uganda to develop a transitional program for youths aging out of the organization’s support system.
Postdoctoral fellow Yan Yuan was awarded a Fahs-Beck dissertation scholarship for her dissertation, “Exploring the Roles of Trauma and Emotion Dysregulation in the Developmental Pathways for Borderline Personality Disorder among a Sample of Inner-city Women.”