From earning her MBA to completing internships with an NBC-TV affiliate and at Harrods in London, graduate student Megan Vendemia, now finds herself teaching and conducting research at The Ohio State University.
Vendemia’s research focuses on communication technology and how affordances of newer media shape people’s impressions of other people, places and products. She received the Walter B. Emery Memorial Scholarship Award for excellence in research in April 2016. This award is granted to a pre-candidacy PhD student who demonstrates excellence in research. She received this award based on several accepted publications and articles under review at peer-reviewed journals.
“These studies generally focus on how different types of online information shape impressions, namely in the context of commercial decisions and body image. In addition to this list, I have three articles currently under review at peer-reviewed journals,” Vendemia said. She is unable to disclose the titles to these articles that are currently under review due to the fact that it is a blind review process.
Vendemia has taught a multitude of undergraduate courses and continues to receive awards for her continued excellence in teaching and in research. Some of the courses she has taught include Public Speaking, Introduction to Organizational Communication, Introduction to Communication Technology and Persuasive Communication.
Most recently, Vendemia received the Albert Warren Scholarship for teaching in April 2017. This award is granted to a student who demonstrates excellence in teaching. Vendemia’s excellence in teaching can truly be shown through the Public Speaking courses she has taught. These classes focused on the nonverbal aspects of public speaking. Her students were required to present to the class on a variety of topics throughout the course of the semester. To encourage students to come out of their shells and gain comfort in front of an audience, Vendemia designed several small group and individual speaking activities that helped her students.
Vendemia deeply enjoys her career in academia at the Ohio State’s School of Communication because of the training she receives in research methods and the ample opportunities she is provided with to develop her own research program. “I truly enjoy that our program includes many people who I am happy to call my friends,” Vendemia said.
Vendemia is currently completing her doctoral candidacy exams and will begin working on her dissertation in the spring. Vendemia and her advisor, David DeAndrea, are also currently working on several projects; they are exploring how people evaluate the credibility of different types of online information. Her most recent program/paper, which she is working on with DeAndrea as her co-author, is focused on understanding how people form impressions of others online. This overarching idea has guided several studies, particularly her most recent work exploring how women internalize and evaluate other women’s sexualized pictures shared on social media. It was presented at the National Communication Association annual convention in Dallas this November.
Article written by student Kailyn Despotakis
