The OI&LS program has awarded the 2018 Deborah K. LaPointe OI&LS Endowed Scholarship to doctoral candidate Aaron Kelly Anderson.
Fresh out of his MA English program in 2013, Anderson began his studies in the OI&LS PhD program with great optimism. He quickly decided on a specialty of storytelling as a learning dynamic, and he truly believes that a close examination of storytelling and what it involves could unlock many secrets of more meaningful learning interactions. Anderson’s dissertation will explore the storytelling approaches that organizations use in online petitions. Online petitions alert and inform people about crucial issues in social, political, or cultural spheres and travel great distances on the Internet.
Anderson has a clear interest in distance learning – the cornerstone of the Deborah LaPointe Scholarship. Storytelling, in its ancient roots, happened nearly exclusively in smaller gatherings. Contemporary storytelling is a global phenomenon. Petitioning networks of campaigners, supporters, and other relevant parties can communicate our stories through vast, multifaceted channels, and the objectives of those stories go far beyond a simple act of cultural cohesion.
Anderson says, “I am extremely grateful and excited for the opportunity that this scholarship provides. With the funding and recognition from the LaPointe Scholarship, I plan to expand on my dissertation research and further investigate what these petition stories mean to the masses.” He goes on to say, “I am thankful for the guidance I receive from my graduate advisor, Professor Lani Gunawardena, my colleagues in the OI&LS program – plus the unending support and motivation from my mother.”
The family of Deborah LaPointe established a scholarship to support the OI&LS (formerly OLIT) program to commemorate the work and life of Professor Deborah La Pointe. A much loved student, and then faculty member in the Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology program (OLIT). Her love of distance education and her scholarship and teaching in the field were exceptional. The scholarship was established to support doctoral students in the OLIT/OILS program.
Find out more about OI&LS at oils.unm.edu. Give online to the Deborah LaPointe Scholarship.
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