Two students receive annual scholarship for graduate studies at Kennesaw State

Nicole Junker, a Ph.D. student in international conflict management, and Kelly Dumont, a student in the Master of Social Work program, are this year’s Clendenin Scholars. The Clendenin Scholars Program awards up to $20,000 a year to high-achieving students pursuing graduate degrees at Kennesaw State.

Junker completed research on human trafficking in the Republic of Moldova for her master’s thesis and currently is researching the media impact on trafficking survivors returning from Islamic State-captivity in Iraqi Kurdistan. Her dissertation addresses the importance of creating an adaptable model for the rehabilitation of sex-trafficking victims throughout the world.

Prior to joining the INCM program and becoming a graduate research assistant to professor Debarati Sen, Junker served as the communications specialist for the Access to Justice Program in Iraq and as the communications director for the Identity Theft Resource Center. She has volunteered for nearly a decade with the International Visitor Leadership Program, teaching international delegates how to create communications products involving survivors of gender-based and sexual violence and working with domestic-trafficking survivors in rehabilitation.

Dumont works as a graduate research assistant at Kennesaw State and is a member of Phi Alpha Social Work Honor Society, National Association of Social Workers and Georgia Society for Clinical Social Work. While a student at Wake Forest University, Dumont founded a chapter of Actively Moving Forward, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting college students who are grieving a loved one’s illness or death.

Dumont focuses her research on the psychosocial impacts chronic illness has on individuals and families. She plans to pursue a career in medical social work, with particular interests in care coordination, community health outreach and education, and grief and bereavement counseling.

Junker will be awarded $20,000 to pursue her doctorate, while Dumont will receive $15,000 as the Clendenin Scholars master’s recipient. Both also will receive full graduate tuition waivers.

Junker, Dumont, previous scholarship recipients and the Clendenin family will be honored at a reception in the fall. A total of 40 students have received scholarships through the initiative, originally known as the Clendenin Graduate Fellows Program when it was established in 2008 with a $1 million endowment from the Clendenin family.

For more information about the Clendenin Scholars Program, visit www.kennesaw.edu/clendenin.