We want to honor and acknowledge the undergraduate and graduate students making a difference and earning recognition during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Sydney Kaufmann - Samantha K. Hastings Student Award for Undergraduate Leadership
Yi Wan and Laila Conway - Robert V. Williams Research Award
Beth King - William M. Trafton III Outstanding Student Award for Leadership
Heather Kiessling - Wayne S. Yenawine Distinguished Student Award
Jennifer Bartell Boykin, Beka Darrah, Cody Alan Drinkard, Margaret Cook Jackson, Wing Ling Tang, Isabel Ann Turk, Cory C. Watson - Beta Phi Mu Initiates
Valerie Vera is a recipient of the Eugene Garfield Dissertation Fellowship.
The fellowship is awarded to doctoral students who are working on their dissertations in library and information science, information studies, informatics or a related field. Vera's dissertation is Navigating Digital Margins: Trauma-Informed Design for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Information on Social Media.
Rhys Dreeszen Bowman has been selected as a Biliniski Dissertation Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. During the fellowship, Dreeszen Bowman, who uses the pronoun they, will focus on completing their dissertation — From Margins to Center: Community-Based Action Research with Transgender Communities in South Carolina.
The College of Arts and Sciences manages the Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowships which provide $40,000 to graduate students in the humanities and social sciences to support completion of their doctoral degrees.
Doctoral student Amanda Lockett is a recipient of the 2024 Ethel Bolden Minority Fellowship sponsored by the Richland Library Friends and Foundation. The fellowship encourages and provides support to students from underserved and underrepresented ethnic and racial groups who are working toward an undergraduate or graduate degree. Fellows receive $3,500 in financial assistance towards continuing their education.
Lockett is a cultural preservationist with unique experiences preserving artifacts, stories, and records within Gullah Geechee communities. She will use her skills and experience to assist Richland Library customers in capturing and archiving their personal experiences and oral histories through storytelling.
LISSA President Beth King was awarded the Nancy Jane Day Scholarship from the South Carolina Association of School Librarians. This merit-based scholarship supports the development of school library media specialists by recognizing individuals pursuing advanced degrees or certification in school librarianship. The scholarship reimburses the cost of one selected course taken within the last year. Beth is currently a library assistant at Lugoff-Elgin High School in Kershaw County.
Samaneh Borji is a recipient of the Code4Lib Scholarship . The scholarship was made possible by donations from Princeton University Library, Innovative, and generous individuals in the Code4Lib community from the Angel Fund fundraising.
Other grants and awards:
Recipient of the 2024-2026 Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue research grant ($3,000).
USC Graduate School Travel Grant (Jan. 2025) - $500
NNLM Regional Medical Library Region 2 Professional Development Award (Dec. 2024)
- $3,000
Medical University of South Carolina
Mateo Moyon was the receipient of the Undergraduate Scholarship awarded during the annual Deans' and Directors' Lecture. The award honors an outstanding undergraduate student for academic excellence.
Two iSchool doctoral students were members of winning teams who participated in the school's IBM watsonx competition. The student teams were given a challenge question to address: How can generative AI technology improve equitable access to essential resources and opportunities for all people?
Jiaxuan Zhang was a member of the second place team which developed an AI-powered chatbot to combat food insecurity for students and connect them with local farmers. His team earned a $5,000 prize.
Amirreza Kalantari was a member of the third place team which earned a $2,500 prize. They developed the training of a generative AI to improve access to emergency information during hurricanes.