Research, Graduate School of Education Christiana Kallon Kelly Receives Honorable Mention at NAGS 3 Minute Thesis Competition

Christiana Kallon Kelly, a PhD Candidate in the Graduate School of Education, competed against 16 other graduate students from institutions in the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) 3 Minute Thesis competition last Friday. She described her work observing schools in her home country of Sierra Leone. In 2018, the Government of Sierra Leone began a large initiative to bring tuition-free education across the country using new education technologies, but little has been done to address the inequities in electricity access in different parts of the country. Christiana's research aims to understand how teachers and students are impacted by these new educational technologies in schools without electricity or access to textbooks and other necessary educational resources. Christiana presented her work virtually from Sierra Leone and despite low internet connectivity delivered an engaging and powerful talk that ranked in the top 4 of presenters and earned her an Honorable Mention for the competition -- highlighting not only the importance of her work but her enthusiasm for her research.

Each NAGS institution submitted the top winner in their own 3 Minute Thesis competition. NAGS institutions span the northeastern U.S. and Canada. You can watch a recording of Christiana's winning talk on our 3 Minute Thesis page. A recording of the NAGS 3 Minute Thesis competition is available as well. Christiana's presentation starts at 56:30.

Christiana was also awarded a 2020-2021 GAPSA-Provost Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation at Penn and was recently selected as one of 14 scholars and practitioners for the 2021-2022 Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program non-residential fellowship program. Read the Graduate School of Education's announcement here.