WSU communication doctoral student Sherri Ter Molen receives outstanding grad student award...

Wayne State media arts and studies doctoral candidate, Sherri L. Ter Molen, who focuses on Korean studies, was selected to receive the 2014 Korean American Communication Association (KACA) Outstanding Graduate Student Award. This is a competitively selected national award. According to the call for nominations, "The Outstanding Graduate Student Award honors an exceptional graduate student for his or her significant accomplishments, as exemplified by publications, conference presentations, awards, and other academic recognition."

Her first presentation at a national conference was as part of a KACA paper session at the National Communication Association's 2009 conference in Chicago, the fall before she entered Wayne State. This paper lived on to become her first publication in 2011. "KACA has brought me presentation, networking, and service opportunities, and even paired me with one of my academic heroes, Dal Yong Jin, for a mentoring session at the conference of the International Communication Association in 2012," said Ter Molen. "This organization has been absolutely instrumental in my academic/professional development."

She is advised at Wayne State by Associate Professor of Communication, Dr. Katheryn Maguire. "I want to thank Dr. Maguire for believing in me and for supporting my pursuit of Korean studies," said Ter Molen.

Ter Molen will travel to Seoul, South Korea, this summer for three weeks on a research trip funded by the Beyond the Korean War project, a joint venture between the Academy of Korean Studies and Cambridge University. Ter Molen will study forestation and reforestation during the Yushin period with her colleague Dr. Robert Winstanley-Chesters, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge and a visiting research fellow at the University of Leeds.