Mary Adams

---

Mary Adams graduated from WKU in the spring of 2020 with a Political Science and Communications double major. Adams took advantage of several opportunities offered by the Department of Political Science, including an internship with the Barren River Area Development District (BRADD) and a Faculty Undergraduate Student Engagement (FUSE) grant to complete research on constituent service and representation.

Adams started work on her master’s degree in public administration through the MPA JUMP program. The MPA JUMP program allows students to complete a master’s degree in an accelerated time frame by allowing students to count graduate hours toward the completion of their undergraduate and graduate programs. Complementing her interest in policy and public administration, Adams began her internship with BRADD as the Community Economic Development Intern. Through this internship, she focused on data collection and grant writing.

Adams was awarded a FUSE grant to conduct research on constituent service and representation. Through this research, she focused primarily on constituent attitudes toward legislators and congressional representation. She used this FUSE grant to complete her honors thesis and presented research related to the project at the Symposium on Southern Politics at the Citadel.

Adams chose to major in political science because she believed the major would give her the skills to succeed in future endeavors. “I wanted to learn how to think well, write well, and reason well,” she said, “And these are skills I have gained through my time as a Political Science major.” Mary is now a Public Administration Specialist for BRADD.