October 18, 2006
PERRYSBURG, Ohio- On Saturday, October 7, 2006, at the Ohio Communication Association Conference, Wittenberg grad Laura Russell (’04) was singled out for the OCA Distinguished Graduate Student Award.
As the only graduate in the entire state of Ohio to receive this distinction, Russell was in the running with many others for the award. In order to apply, Russell had to submit a piece of academic writing and her resume along with the application. In addition, letters of recommendation were considered to weigh heavily in the selection process.
Shocked that she actually won the award amidst the other applicants, Russell said, “Throughout my graduate experience I have met so many amazing people who blow me away with their intelligence. I never considered myself being even remotely competitive in the running.” She attributes her success and growth to her undergraduate experiences at Wittenberg as well as the University of Dayton, where she attends graduate school, studying communication.
While she was still an undergraduate student, Russell inaugurated a peer-to-peer mentoring program at Wittenberg that received praise in the Spectra, the national communication newsletter. Last year, Russell stepped up and assumed an adjunct teaching position for the department by teaching Research Methods, the class known to the majors as one of the most challenging. She said that the position was definitely unique and she appreciates the chance to teach before receiving her Masters’. Russell attributes most of this personal and academic growth to her students. “They helped me to think differently about things in ways I had never before considered. So, as hokey as it may seem, I attribute much of my continued accomplishments in academia to the students who reinforced and challenged my learning.”
Russell is now focusing her time on her research to receive her Masters’ degree. Having struggled with eating disorders for a significant portion of her life, Russell is taking her experiences and personal ambition to overcome the illness to a new level. The project she is currently working on examines the internal dialogue of eating disordered persons and how this dialogue functions to construct the disorder. She said, “Having dealt with an eating disorder for quite some time now, I have never given up searching for ways of understanding the challenges I face. And at the same time, I see how there are so many others who also struggle with the same illness. So, I've taken a proactive approach through my research to discover ways of overcoming eating disorders. It is a very new perspective to the communication field, and appears to be in demand.”
Besides this research, Russell is working on a piece that has the potential to be published in the Communication Yearbook, an academic journal. She also continues to teach; this time at the University of Dayton, Russell is currently an instructor of basic Communication courses. She will hold this position until she graduates in the summer of 2007.
Still extremely modest about receiving the award, it is obvious why Russell is an important asset to the field of Communication and deserves such a highly respected honor. She joked that, like an award show, she has a list of people to whom she would like to attribute her success. Russell said, “I honestly feel that there have been so many to support me all along: my students, the Communication Department at Wittenberg, my supporting colleagues and professors at UD, and even my hamster Petey. And the list goes on.”
