Grady College announces its Spring 2016 recipients of CURO research assistantships

Five advertising and public relations students have been awarded
Spring 2016 CURO assistanships. 

Five students in the Grady College have been awarded Spring 2016 research assistantships from UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO).

The CURO Assistantship Program, now in its second year, provides one-semester, non-renewable $1,000 stipends to outstanding undergraduate students across campus to actively participate in faculty-mentored research. Three Grady College students were awarded assistantships for the fall semester.

The following Grady College students have received CURO assistantships for Spring 2016:

Bleak Chandler, a senior advertising major, is exploring the idea of how humans and computer A.I. would be able to form social relationships. Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, assistant professor of advertising, is his faculty mentor.

Katherine McKeogh, a senior public relations major, is examining and analyzing the digital communication strategies used by ISIS, as well as the strategies used by the U.S. Department of State against it.  Her faculty mentor is Juan Meng, associate professor of public relations.

Kari Saunders, a senior majoring in public relations, is researching student housing the in the Athens community.  Working with Meng, she is studying reasons why students are attracted to and enjoy different types of living arrangements, with particular focus on the downtown area.

Emily Taylor, a senior public relations major, is studying sustainability initiatives on UGA’s campus, such as recycling, to see how people perceive the projects.  Meng is her faculty mentor.     

Taoli Zhang, a junior majoring in public relations, is exploring social media discourse about environmental pollution and possible regulatory solutions.  He is specifically focusing on air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions as topics of social media discussion and debate and how these issues are directly tied to the larger issue of global climate change. Zhang is under the guidance of Michael Cacciatore, assistant professor of public relations.

All student recipients of assistantships will present at the 2016 CURO Symposium, which will take place April 4-5 at The Classic Center.

Grady College students interested in applying for future CURO research assistantships can contact Alison Alexander, senior associate dean for academic affairs, at alison@uga.edu. For more details program, visit http://curo.uga.edu/CURO_Research_Assistantship.

Author: Stephanie Moreno, s.moreno@uga.edu 

Contact: Alison Alexander, alison@uga.edu