Hill House Students
Elcin Celik
Elcin Celik is a graduate student in the sociology department at Western Kentucky University. Her main interests are ethnic conflict, genocide, multiculturalism, ethnic minorities, social inequality, and social movements. Also her thesis project is about religion as an element of violence specifically in the case of Bosnian War. She assumes that the growing Bosnian population in Bowling Green will help to improve her thesis project.
Ms. Celik earned a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Hacettepe University in Turkey. During her undergraduate studies, she served as a volunteer in many community organizations. In this period, she did several projects with other volunteers such as My Library, White Hat, Discrimination and Homophobia, The Sounds of Gender, Reproductive Hand, Plastic Bag: Don’t put your life in it, and Miss Leader. After school, Ms. Celik worked a variety of jobs the professional world like a human resources specialist at a consulting firm, a customer representative in a call center, and a customer service supervisor at SME Bank. She then decided to go back to academia.
Ms. Celik would like to study the rising population of Bosnia in Bowling Green and their adaptation problems in neighborhoods as a refugee within perspective of war trauma. She believes that her project keeps the ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships and Hill House’s principles.
Amelia Harshfield
Amelia Harshfield is from Wichita, Kansas. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Baker University located in Northeast Kansas. Although she her degree was in Business, she is currently finishing her Masters of Applied Economics from Western Kentucky University. Amelia is planning on continuing her education by applying to PhD schools in Economics for fall 2012. She would like to take advantage of the time spent in the Hill House by becoming more acquainted with Bowling Green and its community and applying economics to better understand the western region of Kentucky.
John Roberts
John Roberts is currently a graduate assistant for the WKU Alive Center and will be working in and with the Hill House program. John’s hometown is Scottsville, Kentucky where he attended and graduated high school. From there, John attended and graduated from Georgetown College where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Before enrolling as a graduate student at Western Kentucky University, John worked full time in a NPO in Lexington, Kentucky. Now, John is completing a Masters of Arts in Counseling and Student Affairs at Western Kentucky University.
John has high hopes for his time with the WKU Alive Center and the Hill House. Living by a carpe diem philosophy, John strives to uphold the following quote by Leo Rosten, “The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.” While seeking a career in student affairs and higher education and working with the WKU Alive Center and the Hill House, John hopes to involve more Western Kentucky University students in the Bowling Green and Warren county community as well as help citizens obtain a better life through higher education opportunities or providing various services based on the needs of each individual.
Jacqulynn Skaggs
Jacqulynn Skaggs is from Louisville, KY. She obtained her bachelor of Social Work at Murray State University in May 2011. While attending Murray State she was able to assist in a faculty assisted qualitative research project for the Calloway County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention (CC-ASAP). She completed her Bachelor level internship at Four Rivers Behavioral Health in Paducah, KY through the Prevention and Education Center. She is currently attending Western Kentucky University working towards her Master of Social Work degree as a graduate assistant with the Hill House. While working with the Hill House, Jacqulynn Skaggs plans on participating in applied research and contributing to the great city of Bowling Green through different types of community collaboration.
