A newly-established scholarship to honor outstanding Writing Fellows has been awarded to two students from among the 60 students in the program. Recipient Samantha Wallace is from Austin, Texas, and is an English major. Sam will serve as assistant director to Dr. Lezlie Christensen Branum, who is the program director, in the coming year. The second awardee, Grace Hallock, is from Lewiston, Utah, and is studying Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education. 
The Writing Fellows (WF) program, founded in 1990 by Dr. Joyce Kinkead with a cohort of 13 students, is made of up high-achieving students who are nominated to the program by their professors because of their excellent writing skills. Each semester, WFs are assigned to courses to help students with their writing. The students in the course are required to turn in each writing assignment to a WF, who reads and critiques the assignment, and then meets in a one-on-one conference with the student to discuss it. Students can revise their papers before handing in the final draft for a grade. The program affords improved writing skills for both the WF and the students. Many WFs have used this experience to seek graduate degrees and further excel in professional careers where written communication is important. Professors benefit from this program because they receive much-improved writing assignments where they can focus on grading the content.
The program received over 100 applications for the 2022-2023 cohort; the 40 selected were introduced at the annual end-of-the year awards banquet on April 27, 2022. Fellows graduating received certificates as did those continuing this next year. Speakers included former director Julie Foust Andrew, Harrison Kleiner from the Office of the Provost, and the inaugural director, Joyce Kinkead. 
Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed is a graduate student in his second year, pursuing a doctorate in sociology at USU. He recently helped survey Utahns to see if environmental concerns affect the decision to have children.
Utah State University President’s Office recently held receptions for this year’s round of inaugural lectures. Three recently promoted faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences presented thoughtful reflections on their research and the even...
