Marjorie Anne Foster

The William Moseley Brown Leadership Award is presented by Elon’s Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa to a student who consistently demonstrates the highest ideals and principles of ODK: scholarship, service, integrity, character, and fellowship including providing distinguished leadership to their peers. The award is named in honor of a former Elon faculty member who was one of the original founders of the national chapter of ODK.

This year’s awardee, Marjorie Anne Foster, is Senior studying Journalism, Asian Studies, Interreligious Studies and Environmental Education. She is a member of Lambda Pi Eta, the Communications Honor Society, Theta Alpha Kappa, the Religious Studies Honor Society and Omicron Delta Kappa, the Leadership Honor Society. She’s contributed great work for the Elon News Network as an Editorial Writer and Photographer, served as the Greek Intervarsity Coordinator, House Ministry Leader and Mentor. In addition to her leadership experiences, Marjorie has done extensive research as a Multifaith Scholar Research Fellow, South Eastern Asia Research group member and a Research Fellow in the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society. She goes above and beyond in her involvement in the community and passionate about her research which “analyzes the experiences of college-age Muslims in North Carolina and examines how they negotiate their religious identities in the face of stigmatization, Islamophobia, and political and social turmoil.”  Marjorie is a servant leader and scholar who has made significant contributions to our campus and surrounding community.

The 2020 Elon Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa William Moseley Brown Leadership Award is presented to Marjorie Anne Foster.

Today I am here to present the PERCS Outstanding Ethnography Award. This award recognizes the student who has conducted the most outstanding ethnographic research project at Elon University, judged according to the quality of both the process and product. The award is given by PERCS: The Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies.

This year our recipient is Marjorie Anne Foster:

• Major: Journalism
• Minors: Interreligious Studies and Asian Studies

For her UR in the MFS program, and building on a semester of study abroad in Indonesia and her Journalism background, Marjorie Anne developed a sophisticated project focused on the experiences of college-age Muslims in NC. She interviewed 45 individuals from the region’s universities, Muslim Student Associations, and the Burlington Masjid, and developed a paper which won the Best Undergraduate Paper Prize at a recent selective regional Religious Studies conference. She was also accepted to present at the NCUR conference this Spring. Marjorie Anne has had a related article about Islamophobia and media bias accepted into the Elon Communications Journal and recently had a 2nd article accepted into a RS undergraduate research journal. She created the award-winning website Meeting Muslims to showcase her research and is an advocate of public scholarship and reciprocal research, having developed deep relationships in the local Muslim community.

Congratulations, Marjorie Anne!