EHE News
Gray to Use Spencer Grant to Study High School Relationships
DeLeon Gray
5-29-11
Only 3 percent of applicants were granted prestigious Spencer Fellowships this year. DeLeon Gray is among them.
Gray of Prince George's County, MD, a doctoral student of educational psychology in the College of Education and Human Ecology, received the 2011-2012 Spencer Dissertation Fellowship from the Spencer Foundation.
Gray will use the $25,000 grant as his primary funding source while writing his dissertation, A New Framework for Conceptualizing School Belonging: The Importance of "Fitting In" and "Standing Out."
"Social processes contribute immensely to the way students undertake academic tasks," Gray said. He is studying how a student's balance between fitting in and standing out contributes to their positive self-perceptions, emotions, and outlook on academics.
"I am humbled," Gray said. "After learning that I received the fellowship, I thought about how amazing it is that people sometimes see things in you before you are able to see these things in yourself. In addition, my educational psychology and philosophy doctoral program at Ohio State has provided me with stellar academic training. For this, I am truly blessed."
Gray augments his research with high-quality experiences, such as his summer as a program analyst at the Office of Science Education, National Institutes of Health. In 2009, a CIC (Council on Institutional Cooperation) Traveling Scholar award allowed him to conduct research with both his advisor Eric Anderman, professor of educational policy and leadership, and faculty at the highly ranked education and psychology program, University of Michigan.
Originally from Temple Hills, Md, Gray received a bachelor's degree in 2007 from the University of Maryland - Baltimore County, in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in psychological foundations of education. He received a master's degree in 2009 from Ohio State in quantitative research, evaluation and measurement.
The Spencer Foundation investigates ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world and has awarded grants totaling approximately $250 million. The Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education.
Writer: Kamilah King, 4th-year student in strategic communications and intern, Education and Human Ecology Office of Advancement.
© 2011 The Ohio State University - College of Education and Human Ecology. All Rights Reserved.
If you have trouble accessing this page and need to request an alternate format, contact the webmaster.