Two Pullias research assistants awarded dissertation fellowships

Congratulations to Pullias research assistants Elizabeth Park and W. Edward Chi, recipients of dissertation fellowships for the 2018-19 school year!

Elizabeth Park was awarded the Haynes Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, given by the Haynes Foundation to support dissertation projects that address economic, social, policy or political problems of the Los Angeles area. She will use the grant funds to pursue her dissertation, titled “Which academic readiness indicators help support the high school to community college STEM pipeline?”

“I am excited to study STEM-aspiring students as they transition from high school to community college in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. I am a Los Angeles native and I hope this research will help improve the policies of colleges that serve my community,”  Park said. “I plan to unpack patterns and trends with a focus on demographic groups underrepresented in STEM fields. The recent push towards aligning high school readiness indicators with community college placement policies highlights the need for this kind of research.”

Chi was awarded the USC Graduate School Final Year Fellowship to support the research for his dissertation, titled “ School Accountability and Postsecondary Student Outcomes.”

“My work uses national data to measure the postsecondary outcomes from earlier exposure to K-12 accountability policies,” Chi said.

Chi is also the recipient of a USC Graduate School Summer Grant. “The funding will support summer writing and travel to data centers,” Chi said.

Park and Chi are among the Pullias Center’s 16 research assistants, who conduct higher education research along with four full-time post-doctoral scholars and eight faculty members.