Rin Ferraro, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, was recently awarded the prestigious Mergler Dissertation Completion Fellowship by the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost at the University of Oklahoma. This fellowship is a recognition of especially meritorious projects of doctoral candidates who are in the final phases of dissertation writing.
“This fellowship will help me finish my dissertation, which focuses on future expectations and well-being of children that are involved in the child welfare system,” Ferraro said. “I think it's really important in research on children, especially those involved in the child welfare system, that they actually have a voice in it. I'm just really grateful for the opportunity to put this project together.”
In 2022, Ferraro and two others were awarded a graduate student seed grant from Data Institute for Societal Challenges for their project titled, “With Our Own Eyes: Using Photovoice for Youth in Foster Care to Understand Aspirations.” This seed funding helped Ferraro establish their dissertation project.
“I'm so thankful to DISC for giving our team the seed funding needed to pay for the cameras and film development for our project,” Ferraro said. “We’re using a less traditional form of data, and I think that it's really cool that they're open to data collection in such a broad sense.”
Ferraro currently serves as a graduate research assistant to Erin Maher, Ph.D., senior associate director for DISC and associate professor of sociology in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the team working on the Parent-Child Assistance Program at OU.
“Rin is one of those exceptional graduate students who has quietly taken advantage of every opportunity available to them to make the most of their graduate education,” Maher said. “They’ve completed an Interdisciplinary Training Program on Child Abuse and Neglect, enrolled in a private course on a methodology they are using in their dissertation, got involved in graduate student leadership activities at OU and pursued external support for their research objectives. They are so well-deserving of this award.”
Learn more about the Nancy L. Mergler Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost website.
