Katie Spoon, a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science and co-advised by professor Aaron Clauset and associate professor Dan Larremore, has been awarded an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) scholarship. This scholarship, totaling $7,500, will provide support for Spoon to focus on her research during the final year of her PhD program.
The ARCS scholarship is a significant achievement for Spoon as it provides additional funding to allow her to dedicate herself fully to her research in the last year of her PhD. She had been looking for additional funding opportunities to free up time for her dissertation research, as her previous funding from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship was set to end in August.
With this newfound financial support, Spoon intends to pursue two projects that involve working with restricted-use government data. The first project is related to her master’s thesis in education policy, focusing on measuring access to STEM careers for students from diverse backgrounds and educational paths. The second project involves collaborating with the U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies to study earnings gaps in academia across gender, race, and institutions.
To receive the ARCS scholarship, Spoon went through a nomination process where she self-nominated by providing information about her research experiences, career plans, and motivations for applying for the scholarship. This scholarship will provide the support she needs to complete her research goals and advance her academic career.
Katie Spoon’s receipt of the ARCS scholarship represents not only an outstanding achievement but also a testament to her dedication and hard work towards advancing knowledge in computer science and education policy fields.
In conclusion, Katie Spoon’s award of an ARCS scholarship is a remarkable milestone that will enable her to focus solely on pursuing two projects that require restricted-use government data analysis during the final year of her PhD program. This financial support will undoubtedly enable Katie Spoon to achieve great successes in advancing knowledge in both fields while furthering
