Two students at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø have been selected from a pool of exemplary nominees to be the inaugural Justice Research Fellows at the IUP Administration and Leadership Studies Research and Training Center.
The students are Angelique Alcantara, a finance and economics major from Fredon, New Jersey, and Owen Zablocki, a sociology major from Ford City.
Both are juniors at IUP and were nominated based on their outstanding academic performance.
The Justice Research Fellowship will allow Alcantara and Zablocki to participate in “real life” practical mini-research projects with IUP faculty during the winter break and the spring 2023 semester.
The students will be immersed in activities of IUP ALS-RTC faculty currently positioned at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Commission on Crime and Delinquency in Harrisburg. Justice Research fellows will also be funded to travel to attend training and experiential learning opportunities.
The Justice Research Fellowship program is supported through an IUP Council of Chairs and Office of the President strategic plan grant.
ALS-RTC Director Christian Vaccaro said that the experience will have multiple beneficiaries.
“Not only will it provide research experience to serve the public good, but it also develops a talent pipeline of our best and brightest from IUP to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø State public agencies,” Vaccaro said. “Everyone wins in that equation.”
Rob Orth, IUP-ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Commission on Crime and Delinquency principal investigator at the ALS-RTC, said of the student nominees that interviewed for the Fellowship, “all showed a clear passion to learn, assist, and someday be a change agent in the system. I wish we had the resources and time to extend the opportunity to all nominees.”
In future semesters, the Administration and Leadership Studies Research and Training Center hopes to work with other departments across IUP to extend eligible majors for the Justice Research Fellowship and develop a standing “for credit” clinical opportunity that deepens the opportunity.
Alcantara, daughter of Marie Hodge-Alcantara and Ernie Alcantara, is a 2014 graduate of Kittatinny Regional High School. She is a dean’s list student and received the Robert J. Stonebraker Scholarship for Economics and the Economics Department Enhancement Fund. She is a member of the IUP National Society of Leadership and Success.
Zablocki, son of Jeffrey Zablocki and Allyson Zablocki, is a graduate of Armstrong Junior Senior High School.