MA Scholarship

WCU's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders encourages students to become consumers and producers of research. Encouragement occurs in many ways, including the opportunity to participate in the MA Scholarship Award competition. This competition is open to all first year CSD graduate students during their first semester in the program. As part of a course called Foundations of Research (SPP 501), these students are required to write a research proposal. Those who elect to do so may also submit their proposals for consideration in the MA Scholarship Award competition, which specifically targets clinically-based scholarship.

Five finalists are selected by the instructor of SPP 501 (Dr. Sojung Kim) based on the research proposals submitted by the students. These proposals are then reviewed by the entire faculty, and each finalist is invited to summarize his or her proposal during a formal, oral presentation followed by a question/answer period. The winner is selected by the faculty based on five considerations, including:

  1. Content, clarity, and organization of the literature review
  2. Justification of the prospectus (problem statement, methodology)
  3. Feasibility and impact on evidence-based practice
  4. Professional writing style
  5. Oral presentation style (including accompanying PowerPoint)

Recipients of the MA Scholarship receive $1000 award to be used for materials needed to carry out the scholarly activities. It has been awarded four times since 2009. The winner of the 2015 competition was Joanna Adamo. The title of her research project was "The Effect of Visual cues during spaced Retrieval Treatment on Maintenance of learned Behaviors during Follow-Up in Individuals with Dementia." Her mentor was Dr. Jeanette Benigas. Previous recipients, the titles of their research projects, and their faculty mentors are listed below.'

Scholarship Winner

 

Previous Scholarship Recipients

  • Avenso, A. (2014). Perceptions of the Female Voice: The Struggle between Attractiveness and Dominance.
    • (Faculty mentor: Dr. Supraja Anand)
  • Whetstone, T. (2013) Melodic Intonation Therapy: Exploring the sum of Its Parts
    • (Faculty mentor: Dr. Sojung Kim)
  • Wexler, Marci (2011) Lexical Stress Perception Accuracy in University Phonetics Students. (Faculty mentor: Dr. Michael Weiss)
  • McManus, K. (2010) Maintenance of Fluency Strategies Using Video Self-Modeling. (Faculty mentor: Dr. Jennifer Means)
  • Schneider, L. (2009). Child-Directed and Adult-Directed Narrative Patterns of Spanish-Speaking Mothers in a Story Telling Activity. (Faculty mentor: Dr. Patricia Swasey Washington)
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