November 6, 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Candice “CJ” Bolding for successfully defending her doctoral dissertation entitled, “Disability, Sense of Belonging, and Inclusive Classroom Climates in Undergraduate Engineering”. CJ will graduate on December 18 with her Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Clemson University. Drs. Luke Rapa (Chair) and Edmond Bowers (Department of Education and Human Development), Rachel Wagner (Department of Educational and Organizational Leadership Development), and Matthew Voigt (Program of Mathematics Education, Michigan State University) served on her doctoral committee.
Since 2016, CJ has worked full-time in the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering as the Undergraduate Students Services Manager. In her current role, she actively engages with students, cultivates relationships with faculty and staff across the university, connects with industry professionals, and conducts research related to best practices in higher education related to student development. In 2020 she was the recipient of the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences Exceptional Staff award. She has additionally worked to develop programs that promote well-rounded educational experiences for our civil engineering students and served as key personnel on the department’s National Science Foundation Revolutionizing Engineering Departments award.
CJ began pursuing her doctorate part-time in 2019. She has taught courses at Clemson University in the departments of Education and Human Development and Civil Engineering, both in person and online. These include Adolescent Growth and Development for pre-service teachers, Professional Seminar for Civil Engineering, a special topics course focusing on leadership, mentorship, and leading strategic change for civil engineering undergraduates, and Educational Psychology.
CJ was awarded the College of Education’s 2022-2023 Graduate Student Award of Excellence in Research and has three peer-reviewed journal publications, three published book chapters, and 16 published peer-reviewed conference proceedings.
We are lucky to have her supporting our students and faculty and wish her all the best with her future endeavors (hopefully here with us at Clemson)!
