Graduate Student Awarded Distinguished
Library Sciences Fellowship
On her first visit to St. John’s Queens
Campus, Michele Mason-Coles ’11MLS happened to glance up and
saw a passage from the Book of Corinthians engraved on the front
wall of Carnesecca Arena: “Not that we are sufficient to think
anything of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from
God.”
The passage gave Michele faith that she would find the strength to
balance her responsibilities as a wife, mother, full-time employee
and, now, a graduate student. “It was at that moment that I knew
that I was in the right place and was doing the right thing in my
life,’ she said. “I knew St. John’s was where I was meant to
be.”
Michele enrolled in the two-year Master’s in
Library Science (MLS) at St. John’s. This year she received
further confirmation that she made the right decision when she
learned that she had been named a 2011-2012
National Library of Medicine (NLM) Associate Fellow.
The distinguished honor provides a generous scholarship as well as
a portion of her relocation expenses to Bethesda, MD. Created to
prepare future medical library leaders, it is an intensive one-year
health information and library technology training
program.
Michele is one of only four MLS graduates nationwide to receive the
coveted fellowship.
Katherine Shelfer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Division of
Library and Information Science (IMLS), stated, “As a former
hospital patient advocate and cancer information specialist, she is
extremely dedicated to providing patients and caregivers with the
information they need to make knowledgeable medical
decisions.”
This is not the only accolade Michele has won while at St. John’s.
In addition to being awarded a full-tuition
Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Scholarship, she received the
Medical
Library Association’s (MLA) 2010 Scholarship for Minority
Students. In fact, the announcement of this award attracted the
attention of NLM Associate Fellowship Director Kathel Dunn, who
contacted Michele suggesting she apply for the fellowship.
“St. John’s flexibility and extraordinary faculty support made all
this possible,” said Michele. When she entered the second year of
the program, Dr. Shelfer recommended she consider
finishing her MLS online. (The entire program is now available
online.) “Being a Distance
Learner has worked like a charm,” she said.
Michele also attributes her success to the “amazing support of her
family and the unstinting encouragement of my mentor, Dr. Shelfer.
She supplied the human piece of my education by inspiring me to
think of myself as a leader in- the- making, urging me to take
advantage of every opportunity.” In addition, the University’s Vincentian orientation
complements Michele’s commitment to helping others. “I feel it is
my responsibility to use my talents for the benefit of others,” she
said.