GNS+ extends congratulations to Morgan Cacic for receiving the Graduate Student Service Scholarship!
The Graduate Student Service Scholarship recognizes and honors the graduate students who volunteer to take on service roles in addition to their research, work, and family obligations. While service can come in many different forms and all service to the university is appreciated, priority for this scholarship is given to students who conduct multiple service activities and/or whose service activity is notably impactful.
The Graduate School recognizes that graduate students belonging to underrepresented groups disproportionately engage in unpaid service to the academy. While a scholarship alone does not rectify historic and current disparate expectations and obligations, this award is designed to reward and value graduate students’ service roles that shape the university’s future.
Morgan Cacic is a disabled academic, children’s book author, #OwnVoices writer of fiction and nonfiction, and social justice activist. She has taught German and English literacy and literature in a variety of capacities in the greater Madison area over the past ten years and has a master of science degree in Education: Teaching & Learning, with Wisconsin teaching licenses in Alternative Education and German Language. She is currently working to finish her PhD with research in the intersections of disability justice, German Literature, and cultivating communities of care in higher education classrooms. On the UW–Madison campus and in its surrounding communities Morgan creates and facilitates workshops and trainings on disability, ableism, mental health, and social justice. The main focus of her work is creating safe spaces for people to discuss and disclose mental health disability, as part of an effort to decrease the stigma surrounding mental illness that often acts as a barrier to receiving critical support services.
Read more about the award and other recipients here.