Second-year MSW student April Smith Parker is a 2010 Robert E. Bryan Fellowship recipient awarded by the Carolina Center for Public Service.
The program awards five summer fellowships of up to $3,000 each to support innovative public service projects that address identifiable needs within North Carolina. Fellows work with community partners and faculty mentors who are familiar with their topics or geographic areas, and the students are responsible for the major planning and implementation of their projects.
Parker’s project is: “Educational Attainment Goals and Barriers of Adolescent African-American Mothers in a Rural N.C. County.”
A student in the Direct Practice concentration, Parker will conduct a qualitative pilot study to investigate the internal and external barriers to educational attainment for African American teenage mothers in Columbus County. Results of the pilot study will provide a foundation for a more intensive study with a larger sample size and lead to an intervention designed to help these mothers achieve their educational goals and delay secondary pregnancies. Parker’s community partner is the Columbus County Health Department and her faculty mentor is Martha J. Cox, Ph.D., director, Center for Developmental Science and professor, Department of Psychology.
