Taking Action to Promote Digital Literacy
Research Rookie, Lauren Griffin:
Taking Action to Promote Digital Literacy
College students experience countless barriers to academic success, but none have excelled like this Sophomore Cybersecurity student and researcher, Lauren Griffin. Lauren was attracted to Radford University due to the location and quality of the cybersecurity program. She has found support at Radford University as a woman in cybersecurity with a learning disability, and she has not let these barriers prevent her from success in the classroom and with research accomplishments.
In late September 2022, Lauren received an invitation from her research mentor, Dr. ‘Shawn Smith, to the 1st annual Cybersecurity, Education, and Research Conference of the Commonwealth and Coastal VA, held at the College of William and Mary. Lauren received an opportunity to present her research on digital literacy for persons under 18. Through Research Rookies Lauren is the first undergraduate mentee, of Dr. Smith, who typically mentors graduate students in the Department of Criminal Justice. Lauren and Dr. Smith used resources like the SMART Lab, run by Dr. John Brummette, to investigate the Twitterverse relating to the mass shootings of Robb Elementary School and the Buffalo shooting of 2022.
Lauren stated, “This conference gave [her] the ability to see a need and want for the digital literacy of people under age 18.” Lauren hopes to teach young people how to use the internet and social media with safety measures in place, in addition to how to recognize and combat red flags when interacting with other users.
At this conference, Lauren was the only invited undergraduate student funded to travel to present. Lauren had her first research presentation in April 2022, at Radford’s 31st annual Student Engagement Forum. This experience “prepared [her] to explain the technical language of cybersecurity to a variety of audiences.”
Lauren was drawn to undergraduate research because it gave her the opportunity to “to see professionals in her field at work, opportunity to collaborate with them, and to jump start her career.” Lauren has taken advantage of every opportunity that she has been offered in her time as a student researcher, and plans to continue her work in this field. Who knows maybe she’ll even become the Professor she was continuously mistaken for while presenting.