School of Communication Student Shaylee Anderson Wins Prestigious Top Paper Award

National Communications Association gives top national recognition to Anderson’s Paper on “The Confluence Model: Factors and Their Effects on Sexual Aggression in College-Age Males”

by Allison Cone

March 21, 2022

Senior communications student, Shaylee Anderson was recently awarded the Top Paper Award from The National Communications Association Lambda Pi Eta Student Organization.

Anderson’s paper, “The Confluence Model: Factors and Their Effects on Sexual Aggression in College-Age Males” was recognized at the Western States Communication Association Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference, and was sent to be evaluated on a national level, where Anderson’s work was selected as National Top Paper.

Anderson began working on her paper in Dr. Brian Spitzberg’s undergraduate course, Conflict Management Communication (COMM 555). In this course, the final assignment was a research paper on any conflict topic of her choice. Anderson opted to focus on research that related to college students everywhere.

“Studies about the numbers and statistics on sexual aggression among college students are pretty common, so I thought it would be interesting to look at it from a different angle and see if we could find things that may cause it, rather than just looking at it once it’s already happened.”

Anderson shares her goals in the field of communication.

“I hope to use my knowledge of general communication, intercultural communication, and media studies to bring more accurate and respectful depictions of diverse communities to the media.”

Representing SDSU on a national level has been an honor for Anderson. She shares her insight of the experience and how it has affected her.

“Throughout my undergraduate studies, I always felt like I was falling behind my peers because I wasn’t in a lot of clubs, didn’t have leadership or internship positions, and didn’t have close relationships with any faculty,” says Anderson. “For this paper, I was able to create something that I felt I could really be proud of, and I’m happy that I have something that can speak for my time at SDSU more than just my grades alone.”

About the National Communication Association

The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion.

For more information, visit natcom.org, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and find us on Facebook.

The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.

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