Illinois State Doctoral Candidate Named a Lumina Fellow

Allison Ambrose, a doctoral student in the College of Education at Illinois State University, has been named a 2008-2009 ASHE/Lumina Fellow by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).  She is currently director of MBA Academic Services and an assistant professor in the College of Business at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

Lumina Foundation has provided ASHE with funding for the fellowships to support dissertation research on the broad topics of financial aid, student retention and success, and adult learners and learning.  The key objective of the fellowship is to promote innovative scholarship by creating an intergenerational community of scholars who will examine social, institutional, and policy barriers to opportunity and student success.

Ambrose, who is one of nine Lumina Fellows, is from Bettendorf, Iowa.  The title of her dissertation is "Student characteristics of merit aid recipients: Structural and human agency determinants."  Her bachelor's and master's degrees are from the University of Iowa.

A critical component of the fellowship program is professional development and mentoring of fellows. To that end, fellows are assigned an established scholar as a mentor in the program, participate in an online community of scholars, and come together twice during the fellowship year - during an ASHE pre-conference session in November and in a summer colloquium at the end of the fellowship year - to participate in an intergenerational group dedicated to promoting innovative scholarship on student access and success.

Lumina Foundation for Education is an Indianapolis-based, private foundation dedicated to expanding access and success in education beyond high school.  The Association for the Study of Higher Education is a scholarly association with about 1,900 members dedicated to higher education as a field of study.