Nathaniel Payne, a second year M.A. student in the Higher Education, was selected as a Rhatigan Fellow to attend the annual NASPA conference.

The Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) Foundation awards a select number of scholarships for graduate students to attend the NASPA Annual Conference. Ideally, one graduate student is chosen from each region and area through an application process.  Applicants must provide their resume to detail involvement within the profession, as well as, submit a video they made about a topic important to higher education. 

“I focused my application video on men and masculinities and the role they play in sexual assault on campus,” Payne said. “During the time of my submission, the Brett Kavanaugh hearing was trending and how that impacts survivors of sexual assault coming forward. I focused on how a masculine identity and the perception of what it means to be a man can play a role in gender-based violence.”

Payne currently serves as the Family Literacy Coordinator within the UM Office of Financial Aid. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Murray State University in 2016. “This is an incredible opportunity and one that I do not take lightly,” Payne said. “It not only offers me an opportunity to professionally develop myself, but it serves as a recognition of the outside research that I conduct on men and what it means to be a man in today’s society. It also gives me an opportunity to get further involved in an association that I have a high passion about.”