American Association of Women in Community Colleges (AAWCC)

Announces 2013 Doctoral Scholarship Awardees

The American Association of Women in Community Colleges (AAWCC) will recognize two 2013 Doctoral Scholarship Awardees at the AAWCC Annual Awards Breakfast to be held Monday, April 21 at the Union Square Hotel in San Francisco.

Jennifer Jirous of the Colorado Community College System and Amy Lewis of the Community College of Philadelphia will be recognized as recipients of the 2013 awards.

Ms. Jennifer Jirous is currently completing her second year in a doctoral program at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs in Educational Leadership, Research and Policy. She was employed for eleven years as an Information Technology faculty member at Pikes Peak Community College. In that role, she was instrumental in developing a program that encouraged spouses of military personnel to pursue higher education. For the past five years she has been the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), IT and Arts Program Director for the Colorado Community College System. She provides support to 215 secondary and 111 post secondary Career and Technical Education programs across the state of Colorado. Her doctoral research will focus on women’s issues as they relate to STEM careers. She received her BS in Computer Information Systems and MBA degrees at the University of Wisconsin.

Ms. Amy Lewis is planning to further her research in race, class and education at Temple University’s Urban Education doctoral program. She is currently a tenure-track faculty member in the English Department at the Community College of Philadelphia. She earned a post graduate degree in education and taught at urban schools in London and Philadelphia. She also completed the Writing Studies MA program at St. Joseph’s University as enhancement to her teaching practice. Ms. Lewis has taught and contributed to the Community College of Philadelphia’s developmental reading and writing program as well as teaching a range of composition and communications courses. She is also noted for co-organizing the Communication Studies independent film festival.

The doctoral scholarship program was created as a leadership initiative to champion women who are pursuing a doctoral degree who have been or are employed full-time at any community college in the United States. Preference is given to women who document completed coursework in community colleges. The Scholarship is a $1,500 award to be used for education expenses related to a doctoral program.

2012-13 National Scholarship Award Recipients

Suzanne M. Fava, Monroe Community College (Region II)
Pragyashree Sharma Basyal, The Community College of Baltimore County (Region III)
Amelia L. Bagwell, Georgia Highlands College (Region IV)
Chantal Simpson, Richard J. Daley College (Region V)
Anna McCall, Central New Mexico Community College (Region VI)
Vanessa Blair, Aims Community College (Region VIII)
Carrie Ann Griffith, Southwestern Oregon Community College (Region X)