SIOP Foundation: How Award Recipients Contribute to the Field

For 25 years, the SIOP Foundation has provided opportunities for I-O professionals and students to receive monetary support for advancing research and supporting careers. This financial aid helps members of the SIOP community push through challenges and achieve their career and educational goals.

2020 Graduate Student Scholarship winner and now SIOP Member Dr. Richard Currie explains, “For many researchers, factors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted research participation, especially for research in work contexts. Receiving the SIOP Graduate Student Scholarship during the pandemic enabled me to recruit and compensate a large, high-quality sample for my doctoral dissertation project, which allowed me to complete and ultimately defend my dissertation in a timely fashion.”

Similarly, 2020 SIOP Anti-Racism Grant winner and SIOP Student Affiliate Louis Hickman shares, “SIOP's Anti-Racism Grant has been critical for funding both data collection and human annotation work. Research on automated video interviews requires both recruiting participants to collect videos and extensive human labor to review and annotate videos. The grant enabled us to hire undergraduate students who are getting paid to gain valuable research experience.”

How does this change the field of I-O psychology, possibly even society? Louis further explains, “United States senators and consumer advocacy groups have argued that automated video interviews (AVIs) are biased against Black and African American interviewees because AVIs use facial recognition software to measure nonverbal behavior, and facial recognition software has been shown to be less accurate for people with darker skin tones. Our research will inform the field as to whether it is true that facial recognition software for measuring nonverbal behavior is less accurate for Black and African American interviewees, as well as investigating the extent of bias in AVIs, regardless of whether they use facial recognition software. There is a pressing need to address these concerns because the adoption of AVIs increased rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Receiving a scholarship can provide benefit far beyond the initial financial aid. The recognition of the hard work required to earn such a distinction can provide support and create connections for years to come. 2019 George C. Thornton III Graduate Scholarship recipient and SIOP Member Dr. Lauren Lanzo explains, “This scholarship provided me invaluable benefits in my early career as an I-O practitioner. In addition to the much-needed financial aid to complete my dissertation, the award provided me with recognition and key networking opportunities through SIOP. During my job search, many interviewers noted the award, which gave me a platform to discuss my work and demonstrate my ability to apply I-O research to practice. I highly recommend students apply for any SIOP scholarship that relates to their work and career goals.”

These are just three examples of the many SIOP awards that have been granted throughout the years. The research discovered and practice that is therefore adopted from the findings of these studies can leave a lasting impact on SIOP, the field of I-O psychology, and the working world.

The SIOP Foundation continues to create a space for people to support one another, regardless of the point they find themselves in their career. When people pursue SIOP awards, their work immensely contributes to the advancement of the field, regardless of if they end up receiving that award or not. Learn more about applying to awards here.