Graduate Student Markera Jones received this year’s Graduate Student Leadership Award from The Graduate College. The award recognizes Markera’s exceptional commitment and service in her role as a Mindfulness Discussion Group coordinator with the Education Justice Project—a model college-in-prison program that offers university-level courses to incarcerated students. The award is granted to graduate students whose outstanding service positively impacts the campus or wider Urbana-Champaign community. 

According to the award description, Makera has demonstrated “expert communication, organizational skills, creativity, and a clear vision” while logging over 90 contact hours with incarcerated students. In addition to her work with the Education Justice Project, Makera has applied her expertise in well-being and emotional regulations research as part of a collaboration with other researchers to develop a “Radical Self-Care Toolkit” for students affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Graduate Student Leadership Award selection committee praised Markera’s ability to effectively transfer her disciplinary knowledge to community outreach. 

Hear more from Markera and other winners of the 2022 Graduate Student Leadership Award in their own words here.

Again, congratulations to Markera Jones!