2020-2022 Fellows

Dym, Kikut, Maddocks

Abigail Dym (left), Ava Kikut (middle), and Sophie Maddocks (right)

The recipients of the 2020-2022 Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowship at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships (PGAEF @ NC):

Abigail Dym, Political Science and Education Policy, School of Arts & Sciences and Graduate School of Education 
Faculty Advisor: Michael Delli Carpini, Professor, Annenberg School for Communication
Abigail Dym, a doctoral student in political science and education policy, hopes to collaborate with Philadelphia and Penn students to study and co-produce a survey related to youth political knowledge and civic engagement. Together they will aim to foster mutual growth of content knowledge in politics and civic education, research experience in survey design and implementation, and student self-awareness of and self-confidence in their essential role as civic agents in Philadelphia and beyond. 

Ava Kikut, Annenberg School for Communication 
Faculty Advisors: Robert Hornik, Professor Emeritus, Annenberg School for Communication; Andy Tan, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication
Ava Kikut is a doctoral student at Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication. She is interested in youth-driven health campaigns, and their role in facilitating youth advocacy, empowerment, and health. Through this fellowship, Ava will collaborate with middle and high school students, along with Penn undergraduates, to develop media messages pertaining to health needs and inequalities in Philadelphia. 

Sophie Maddocks, Annenberg School for Communications 
Faculty Advisor: Julia Ticona, Assistant Professor, Annenberg School for Communication
Sophie Maddocks, also a doctoral student at the Annenberg School, intends to pilot a program of teaching and research that addresses the issue of digital abuse. Through an ABCS course, she hopes to co-develop with students a collection of ‘digital rights’ resources advocating for young peoples’ prosocial, safe, and critical engagement online. Through participatory research, Sophie seeks to investigate alongside students their lived experiences of digital abuse precarity and their reception of existing e-safety guidance. 

Sophie's Reflection: I applied to the Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowship during the first year of my PhD because I wanted to produce impactful research that addressed real-world problems in my local community. The PGAEF Fellowship fundamentally shaped the course of my doctoral research, by enabling me to work directly with high school students and staff at University-Assisted Community Schools. As well as building a youth-informed research agenda, I also had the opportunity to design and teach an Academically-Based Community Service (ABCS) course. Putting participatory research principles into practice, this course was an opportunity to teach and co-research with both high school and undergraduate students. Beyond the funding provided for living, research and travel; it is guidance from a community of staff, teachers and Penn faculty members from across disciplines who helped to turn my ideas for socially engaged scholarship into reality.

Annenberg School announcement on 2020-2022 recipients.