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Joyce Kinkead Scholarship for Distinguished Writing Fellows

Joyce Kinkead has been a change agent since arriving at Utah State in 1982. As Director of Writing, in 1984 she established one of the first computerized Writing Labs in the country. Since then, she has initiated at least 20 distinct and lasting programs, a few of which are highlighted below.

In 1990, as Associate Dean in the college of HASS, Professor Kinkead launched the campus-wide Undergraduate Teaching Fellows program placing promising undergraduates in classrooms as teaching assistants and understudies to faculty members.

In 2001, as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Research, she initiated “Posters on the Hill” where undergraduates from USU and the U. present their research to the Legislature at the Utah Capitol. Shortly thereafter Kinkead created the Research Fellows Program designed to afford a research track to the baccalaureate for exceptional students. Fellows have garnered national awards for their work and gone on to distinguished careers.

In 2007, as Assoc. VP for Research, she founded the Utah Council on Undergraduate Research and, in recognition for this and her many other initiatives she received the Robins Award for USU’s Undergraduate Research Program. This award was followed by her selection as Carnegie Professor of the Year for Utah in 2013 and the Thorne Career Research Award for USU in 2018, becoming the first female professor to receive both of these exceptional accolades.

Although named as Distinguished Professor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2018, no single award can encompass the full span of her myriad contributions to Utah State, particularly with respect to undergraduate education. The Joyce Kinkead Scholarship for Distinguished Writing Fellows recognizes one of Kinkead’s most significant innovations—launched in 1990—the Rhetoric Associates (now Writing Fellows) program. Students are selected and trained to act as writing tutors and mentors in “writing intensive” classes across campus. The scholarship recognizes students who exemplify Kinkead’s notion of an ideal student. This student loves writing and has an open and inquiring mind. They pursue numerous opportunities provided by USU to extend their education beyond the classroom, especially with respect to original research whose results are publicly disseminated. But last and not least important, the scholarship awardee recognizes an obligation to give back by assisting fellow students in improving their writing and scholarship.

The Joyce Kinkead Scholarship Endowment provides scholarships to Distinguished Writing Fellows in their junior or senior year who are majoring in any major and demonstrates an aptitude for undergraduate research and writing.