Shan Cawley

RAP, Program Coordinator

Shan Cawley received her bachelor's degree in English, with an emphasis in creative writing, and a minor in women and gender studies from West Virginia University in 2020. Excited by the possibilities of higher education research and its impact on minoritized student populations, Shan received her M.Ed in higher education from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. A current doctoral student at WVU, Shan's dissertation will focus on the transitional experiences of first-generation, low-income college students enrolled in four-year, public, West Virginia institutions. Shan's other research interests include rural education, student ethnographies, organizational leadership and development, and pop culture. As UGR's new RAP Coordinator, Shan brings qualitative research expertise from the humanities and social science fields, and a unique perspective on how and why students pursue undergraduate research.