College Highlights, November 2016
In the College of Arts and Sciences, there are always big things happening. Take a look at some of our highlights from November 2016:
Johnson Cancer Research Center
Journalism and Mass Communication
Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Communication Studies
Emily Ruder, a master’s student in Communication Studies, presented a debut 
paper at the 102nd National Communication Association conference in Philadelphia, Nov. 10 – 13. Ruder’s research project, “Father/Daughter Communication and Leadership,” focused on the extent to which fathers are leadership role models for their daughters. The paper was ranked one of the top four papers in the Master’s Education Division at the conference. This was Emily’s first national conference.
Miranda Klugesherz, a second-year master’s student in Communication Studies, received the George J. Mitchell Scholarship. The flagship program of the US-Ireland Alliance, the Mitchell Scholarship is a nationally competitive program which selects 12 young American leaders and fully funds a year of graduate study in Ireland. Mitchell scholars are encouraged to adopt an ambassadorial role and further ties between the US and Ireland while growing academically and in leadership and public service.
Concerned with food insecurity for most of her life, Miranda has dedicated her scholarship and community efforts to fighting hunger at the systemic level. Her research focuses on finding ways to give individuals who experienced hunger and poverty a voice in policy. Miranda is a graduate research assistant for the Institute of Civic Discourse and Democracy and a graduate teaching assistant for public speaking classes. Outside of school, she chairs the Junction City Food Policy Council, is an executive member of Live Well Geary County, and is an assistant coach for the speech team at Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska. Miranda will receive her MS in Social Policy at the University College Cork in Cork, Ireland. Back to top
Economics
Amanda Gaulke, assistant professor of economics, has been awarded a Spencer 
Foundation Small Research Grant in the amount of $40,850 for her proposal seeking to study student loan repayment. The goal of this project is to examine how people with student loans move through repayment and what factors are associated with losing good standing during repayment.
Despite student debt exceeding credit card debt, little is known about how people transition through the repayment process. Gaulke and her co-investigators, financial economists Maxime Roy and Christopher Reynolds of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, seek to understand which factors affect people’s ability to repay their loans, and to describe such dynamics as when and how people’s loans go into default, deference or forbearance.
“The media often discusses student loans in a negative light but there isn’t much current research that explains how student loans interact with other types of debt, such as credit cards and medical bills,” Gaulke said. Read the full story here. Back to top Continue reading “College Highlights, November 2016”