Montevallo Communication Professors Awarded Jean O’Connor-Snyder Internship Program Grant 

July 3, 2024

Two professors from the University of Montevallo’s Department of Communication were recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the Jean O’Connor-Snyder Internship Program (JOIP). This is the third time that Dr. Sally Hardig and Dr. Sherry Ford, professors of communication studies, have earned the grant, which will go toward supporting the Falcon Facilitators program.

Falcon Facilitators is a public deliberation and civic engagement program that allows UM students to engage each other, local students and community members in public forums that focus on a variety of issues of shared concern. Students in the program lead efforts to identify and address genuine community issues on an ongoing basis using deliberative practices that are fundamental to community problem-solving.

According to Dr. Ray Ozley, chair of the Department of Communication, a key feature of UM’s communication studies program is how the professors prepare students to successfully engage in important — and sometimes difficult — discussions in a healthy way.

“We are very fortunate that the JOIP grant will continue supporting this work,” Ozley said. “Thanks to this ongoing collaborative relationship, our students will continue to have opportunities for experiential learning in the areas of public deliberation and civic engagement.”

The JOIP and Falcon Facilitators programs are part of Hardig and Ford’s larger Deliberative Communication initiative, which stems from a relationship with the David Mathews Center for Civic Life and the Kettering Foundation that began in 2016. During this time, Hardig and Ford have engaged in several projects with civic, academic and municipal partners. A key feature of this initiative has been their team-taught Deliberative Communication class. Under their leadership, students helped facilitate community forums on topics such as poverty in Alabama, college dropouts, safeguarding voting in elections, misinformation and disinformation and more.

The JOIP, administered by the Mathews Center, is a transformative civic learning experience for college students in Alabama. As the longest-running program at the Mathews Center, JOIP focuses on developing the next generation of leaders by immersing them in community-based projects. The program is named after Jean O’Connor-Snyder, who directed the Capstone Men and Women of The University of Alabama from 1969-1975.