Ph.D. student Kate Golden is a recipient of the University & Bevier Dissertation Completion Fellowship, a highly competitive award designed to provide support during a doctoral candidate’s final year of dissertation work at Rutgers. The award is intended to support completion and recognize excellence.
“I am incredibly honored for this opportunity,” says Golden. “Without having to also hold a work position, the fellowship will allow me to focus my energy on engaging with community and advocacy networks that support foster care alumni and to build a transparent and person-centered project that may have a life beyond the dissertation itself. I am also thrilled that, with this support, I can honor the emotional labor necessary to answer a survey or have a conversation about personal experiences by offering a more equitable and robust incentive structure to each participant.”
Golden’s dissertation is titled “Foster care alumni’s perspectives on belongingness and community: A mixed methods study of the meaning of placement context.” Her committee members are Associate Professor and Director of the MSW Certificate in Promoting Child and Adolescent Well-Being Cassandra Simmel (chair), Assistant Professor Jackie Duron, Associate Professor Judie McCoyd, and outside member Nancy Rolock, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Training, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western University.
Rutgers School of Graduate Studies’ University & Bevier Dissertation Completion Fellowship awarded 15 University and Louis Bevier Dissertation Completion Fellowships for the 2021-2022 academic year. Along with a $25,000 stipend, the award provides health insurance (if needed) and tuition remission for up to two research credits per semester.
