The Dr. Melvin C. Terrell (MCT) Educational Foundation, Inc., recently announced the recipients of its 2024 MCT Scholarship, with UW–Madison’s Janella Benson one of this year’s honorees.
Benson is pursuing her PhD through the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
The MCT Foundation was created to ensure underrepresented students gain access and achieve success in higher education and student affairs. The MCT Foundation provides spaces and avenues for current and future student affairs professionals to address higher education’s most pressing issues.
Benson’s research explores the transitional and navigational experiences of Black women at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) from early matriculation through the professoriate. She is especially interested in how transition programs aid in their positive racialized experiences. She uses critical theories that interrogate and highlight the ways that Black scholars experience joy and are affirmed on predominantly white campuses.
“The MCT scholarship recipients are accomplished graduate students who will be future leaders in higher education. I am confident that the recipients will make an incredible mark on our student affairs profession,” said foundation namesake and foundation chair emeritus, Melvin C. Terrell.
In addition to Benson, this year’s other recipient of the MCT Scholarship is Jayla Moody Marshall, a PhD candidate in educational leadership, policy, and human development with a concentration in higher education, opportunity, equity, and justice at North Carolina State University.
Students wanting to take advantage of this opportunity or other MCT scholarship opportunities in the future should visit mctfoundation.org.