Megan Dolan

Managerial Economics
University of Massachusetts

Final Project: “Effectiveness of Social Service Agencies in Meeting the Needs of Rural Low-Income Families”

Megan Dolan’s interest in poverty began as a volunteer for a housing alliance in central Massachusetts. Her experience as a research assistant in the Resource Economics Department at the University of Massachusetts furthered her understanding of poverty. There she worked on two projects—a study of long-term effects of welfare reform on rural families and a study of homeless mothers in urban settings. She is currently analyzing the data collected in the welfare reform study, the results of which will be used as a teaching tool in undergraduate coursework. Dolan intends to earn a graduate degree and eventually work in public office that addresses food security issues nationally.

Dolan, a senior at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is a research assistant and former intern in the university’s Resource Economics Department. Prior to this, she volunteered and later worked for a Massachusetts housing alliance, and organized a local “Walk for Homelessness” for two years.

Raoul Lievanos

Sociology
California State University, Fresno

Final Project: “Rural America and the Poverty It Experiences”

Through the course of his studies in sociology, Raoul Lievanos has become increasingly aware of how America stigmatizes its poor. He plans to use the RPRC fellowship to study competing theories of poverty, including the culture of poverty theory and the cycle of poverty theory. His ambition is to use research on society to shed light on the myth of meritocracy that pervades American culture, and show that not everyone can lift themselves up by their bootstraps. Lievanos intends to continue his studies in sociology and apply, as C. Wright Mills advocated, a “sociological imagination” to his social analysis, with the ultimate goal of helping to craft social policy dedicated to helping the poor achieve social mobility.

Lievanos received a B.A. in Sociology from California State University, Fresno in December. He has accepted a teaching assistantship in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis, where he will begin to fulfill requirements for a PhD. While at UC Davis, Lievanos plans to continue his research into the competing theories on poverty and rural Latinos, as well as specialize in rural urban sociology, social change and development, demography, and Mexican and United States relations.

Jessica Martin

Public Relations and Sociology
Western Kentucky University

Final Project: “Testing, Home Schooling, and Funding: How These Education Policies Affect the Rural Areas of Kentucky and Mississippi”

Jessica Martin grew up in a persistently poor rural county in the Appalachian Mountains in southeastern Kentucky, where the images of her home town serve as a constant reminder of the struggles of poverty. As a youth, Martin was committed to helping her fellow community members but was not sure how to engage people. Discovering rural sociology helped her understand how she could help families. She also realized, while helping low-income children in the inner city, that although poverty exists everywhere, it is not always the same everywhere. Martin plans to use her fellowship to examine the effects of educational reform on human, social, and community capital in persistently impoverished areas across several states. Her goal is to develop specific policy recommendations for each state’s educational system.

Martin, a senior at Western Kentucky University, plans to earn a master’s degree in rural development and ultimately work as a lobbyist in Washington, DC, particularly for educational reform in rural areas. As she says, “When I compare my educational opportunities with those of friends from urban and metro areas, sometimes I feel deprived. Everyone deserves a quality education.” Martin has served as Vice President of Administration for the Western Kentucky University Student Government Association, mentored youth from low-income families in the Calvary Chapel Youth Program in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and aided in public relations campaigns for locally owned small businesses.

Jenelle Woodlief

Cultural Anthropology and Political Science
Willamette University

Final Project: “Two Oregons? An analysis of Urban and Rural Poverty”

Jenelle Woodlief’s interest in rural poverty springs from her personal experience growing up in a small Oregon town as well as from her undergraduate coursework in U.S. welfare policy. Woodlief hopes that the RPRC fellowship will help her further develop new ways of thinking about and solving poverty, gain further insight into rural poverty in Oregon, and develop policy insights that will inform her future research into rural poverty. Woodlief also hopes that this fellowship will help her develop the necessary research and communication skills for a career in public policy.

A senior at Willamette University, Woodlief has assisted in several grassroots campaigns, including working as an administrative coordinator for Oregon Peace Works and as a regional and organizing director for the Fund for Public Interest Research. She has also volunteered for Willamette Students for Peace and Justice, the Willamette Student Environment group, the Oregon Women Democratic Caucus Campaign School, and volunteered as a mentor at Leslie Middle School. Her career goals include working as a professional researcher, public advocate, and university professor.