Award for Best Undergraduate Paper of 2013


March 4, 2013

Congratulations to Human Services and Social Justice major Joel Uyenco, who received the Department of Sociology's Outstanding Undergraduate Paper for 2013. Joel graduated from GW with a major in HSSJ and a minor in Sociology.

Here's what Joel said about his research: "For my undergraduate honors thesis, I conducted research that looked into understanding the service-learning experience of racial minority students at a predominantly White university. Service-learning is a method of pedagogy that incorporates community service with class curriculum; and although many studies have been conducted on its implementation and benefits, there is little research that has been conducted on how it is experienced by students of color. My interest in the topic stemmed from my background growing up as a child of Filipino immigrants in a predominantly Black community, and from my extensive experience with service-learning coursework as a Human Services major. As a member of the population I wished to study, I was deeply invested in my research and wanted to present it in a way that accurately captured the experiences described by the students I interviewed. I hope that the findings from my research can help to better inform service-learning instructors on the experiences of racial minority students in their classes, in order to create an environment which facilitates trust, understanding, and learning."