The Kent State University Honors College is proud to announce that Honors College student and political science major, Megan Swoger, has been named by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) as a 2018 Portz Scholar.
As a member of the graduating class of 2018 this past spring, Megan created and submitted her thesis entitled “Analysis of the Prevailing Practice of FGM in Ghana: Are domestic laws and international treaties effective in the eradication of FGM within the state?” Megan based her thesis upon two trips to Ghana where she collected data firsthand for her research project. Megan’s thesis advisor is Dr. Julie Mazzei of the Department of Political Science at KSU.
Swoger is one of only four students selected as a 2018 Portz Scholar from a pool of highly competitive honors students from across the country. The NCHC institutional members may select one thesis paper written by an undergraduate honors student per institution to nominate for the Portz Scholars program each academic year. Megan, along with her three fellow scholar recipients, will participate in a 20-minute presentation of her thesis at the National Collegiate Honors Conference in Boston this fall.
Following her recent graduation from Kent State with a major in International Relations and French Literature, Culture, and Translation with a minor in Women’s Studies, Megan is taking a year to travel and is currently in the Middle East. Her future plans include applying for the International and Comparative Law Program at Trinity College in Dublin.
The Portz Scholars Program of the NCHC began in 1990 to recognize John and Edythe Portz for their involvement with and support of Honors education. The Kent State University Honors College continues to rank as one of the top Portz Scholar recipient-producing honors programs in the country, with a total count of 9 scholars to date, including Swoger. The most current Portz Scholar recipients of the Honors College include Dorvan Byler (2015) and Allison Moats (2014).