The purpose of the Dr. Edna L. Saffy Library Scholarship, value $1,000, is to provide support for a student with an academic interest in women’s history. Preference will be given to students with an interest in (ascending order of priority) American Women’s History, Florida Women’s History, Jacksonville Women’s History, and/or Dr. Edna Saffy’s contribution to Women’s History.
Dr. Edna L. Saffy was a professor, human rights activist and founder of NOW chapters in Jacksonville and Gainesville. She was active in city, county, state and national political causes. As Gloria Steinem said of her, "Edna always makes it happen."
Student assistants play a critical role in library staffing, serving library users and supporting internal processes across the Library. Through part-time employment, students build lifelong skills and help cover the costs of their UNF education. This $250 award is intended to reward top-performing Library student assistants who demonstrate excellent service and commitment to the Library and its mission. The award is provided through the Dr. Carolyn Williams Library Student Assistant Fund, established upon her passing by community members and her family to honor Dr. Williams’ memory and many contributions to the Library.
Read more | See Past Winners & Submissions
The Thomas G Carpenter Library and the Dean's Leadership Council are proud to continue the tradition of rewarding students who demonstrate exemplary scholarship using effective research strategies and the library's resources, services, and staff. Through two $1,000 prizes, one for undergraduate students and one for graduate students, students are encouraged to continue their studies and the legacy of UNF Academic Excellence.
The Library Dean’s Leadership Council Scholarship was established in 2015 with support from the Dean’s Leadership Council. It is an annual scholarship and may grow into an endowed scholarship fund to last in perpetuity.
Spring 2023: Cierra Marshall
I am Cierra Marshall, and I will be graduating from UNF with a bachelor’s degree in American Sign Language/English Interpreting with a concentration in Community interpreting in Spring 2024. My goal after graduating is to interpret for the Deaf community in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida. I have worked at the Thomas G. Carpenter Library for about 2 years as a Library Student Assistant. I enjoy assisting students, patrons, faculty, and everyone in between with anything they may need. I have developed many connections with my co-workers and have been supported in every possible way while working here.
Kaia Lacey
After graduating high school in 2020, I was still determining my educational future and what it would look like. As everything was online, I chose to attend FSCJ and attained my A.A. in 2021. For me, going to UNF was the next obvious choice for different reasons. After transferring to UNF, I changed my major to history, aiming to pursue archival work.
While studying at UNF, I attained an internship at UNF's Special Collections for the summer. I later became a student assistant, working with scrapbooks from the Mandarin Garden Club. This project allowed me to see and understand the importance of local history, particularly how critical it is to preserve women's local history. It may seem not very meaningful to some, but seeing these women's impact on their community for over a hundred years was incredible. With my history coursework, the library was instrumental in my studies, offering so much to students and making research more manageable.
Halfway into my time at UNF, I selected a second major, anthropology, as I wanted to focus in the field of archaeology. Slowly, my academic interests shifted towards my new major. Yet, I still implement history in everything I do and sustain many of my research interests in marginalized groups in the United States South. After graduation in the spring of 2024, I plan to attend graduate school for archaeology, focusing on public archaeology. My goal is to uncover and effectively communicate the nuanced historical and archaeological narratives to descendant communities and the wider society.
Graduate - Lauren Boyd
The 2023 Graduate winner of the UNF Library Research Prize is Lauren Boyd. Lauren is a graduate student in the Master in Psychological Science program. Her project involves capturing movements using virtual reality technology to study Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) in adults with and without developmental disabilities. Virtual Reality is the new frontier for human-computer interaction, and Lauren’s essay noted what a privilege it was to work closely on her research with the Library’s Virtual Learning Center (VLC) and its staff. In addition to learning how to optimize literature searching with Boolean operators, the VLC itself provided a physically safe real environment to host the complimentary virtual environment, ensuring that there is minimal to no risk of injury to the participants. The VLC provided the necessary space, access to technology, and support that no other place on campus could offer for her research. Lauren’s application was supported by Dr. Dominik Guess.
Undergraduate - Kaia Lacey
The 2023 Undergraduate winner of the UNF Library Research Prize is Kaia Lacey. Kaia is a senior majoring in history/anthropology with her project titled “White Man’s War: Māori Stance Against Conscription in the Great War.” Although her topic was very niche, Kaia highlighted in her essay both the print and electronic resources available through the Carpenter Library making special mention of the depth of our journal collection for both historic articles and contemporary commentaries. She noted by name a couple of the Library staff who had assisted her: Lauren Newton who taught research methods and Austin Sprunger who obtained resources that she needed from other Libraries. Kaia’s application was supported by Dr. Chris Rominger.
Spring 2023: Boaz Levy
The 2023 Undergraduate honorable mention winner of the UNF Library Research Prize is Boaz Levy. Boaz is a senior majoring in political science and his project is titled “The Sephardic-Mizrahi Moment: Cultural Renewal, Jewish-Arab Rapprochement, and Zionism in the 1920s.” In his essay, Boaz pointed out that the study of modern Middle Eastern history demands innovative sources and linguistic proficiencies and that the Carpenter Library staff was able to help him broke down the intimidating barriers to research and made them manageable. He highlighted not only the outstanding resources of the Carpenter Library but also how valuable it was to have access to resources at other institutions through interlibrary loan. Boaz’s application was supported by Dr. Chris Rominger.
