RUSA selects Spectrum Scholar for internship
Contact: Cathleen Bourdon
Executive Director, RUSA
312-280-4395
cbourdon@ala.org
For Immediate Release
February 14, 2006
RUSA selects Spectrum Scholar for internship
CHICAGO – The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has selected Megan Zoe Perez, a 2005 Spectrum scholar attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as the 2006 RUSA Intern. As the RUSA Intern, Perez will work for a year and a half with the RUSA vice-president/president-elect, Diana Shonrock, associate professor, SciTech Librarian and Training, Iowa State University. Perez will receive $3,000 to support travel expenses to attend the American Library Association's (ALA) Midwinter and Annual Conferences.
“After working as a reference assistant in an academic library for four years, I can say with confidence and the benefit of concrete experience that I want to begin a career as a reference librarian,” Perez stated. “Working as the RUSA Intern will broaden and enrich my education in public service by exposing me to the most current information about the most important issues in our field.”
Perez has a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and history from Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas. He currently works as a graduate research assistant in the Davis Library Reference Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously he was a reference assistant in Olin and Uris libraries at Cornell University and a periodical information assistant at Boston College.
Perez currently serves as the president of the Information and Library Science Student Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a 2005 MENSA Education and Research Foundation Scholar.
RUSA selects one Spectrum scholar each year to receive the $3,000 travel grant and work with the RUSA vice-president. The ALA Spectrum Initiative provides $5,000 scholarships to students from the following underrepresented groups: African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino and Native American. More information about the Spectrum Initiative is available at
www.ala.org/spectrum.
RUSA is a division of the American Library Association.
