Advancing Women in STEM
The Henry Luce Foundation's Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship is empowering female grad students like Ashley Mathew to thrive in math, science and engineering.
As a computer science major in Seton Hall’s College of Arts and Sciences, Ashley Mathew’25 knew she wanted to continue her education at the graduate level. She just wasn’t sure what area of study to pursue. It wasn’t until a conversation with Professor Manfred Minimair, program director for Computer Science, Cybersecurity, and Data Science, that Mathew saw her path.
Minimair told Mathew about the Henry Luce Foundation’s Clare Boothe Luce Program (CBL) for Women in STEM, which is dedicated to significantly increasing the number of women in math, science and engineering at every level of higher education. Through this program, the foundation, which was established in 1936 by the legendary media tycoon and Time magazine founder Henry Luce, provides funding that supports women studying these disciplines. It’s a mission that aligns with Seton Hall’s own efforts as a wide-ranging research university.
Mathew felt especially drawn to CBL’s research and thesis component. Her undergraduate
research on email phishing won an award at the 2024 Petersheim Academic Exposition,
sparking an interest in data science that CBL would enable her to cultivate. After
applying, she was awarded a Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship to apply to her studies
in Seton Hall’s Master of Science program in Data Science and Engineering, which she
will complete in spring 2026. “I don’t think I ever would have done professional research
or a thesis or even studied data science had it not been for this opportunity,” Mathew
says. “It has opened so many doors.”
Graduate scholarships are awarded by the Henry Luce Foundation’s Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM to outstanding female students in select STEM Ph.D. and M.S. programs in Seton Hall’s departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science, and Physics.
Established by Clare Boothe Luce — the late writer, congresswoman, diplomat and wife of Henry Luce — the Scholarship provides full tuition and health insurance for selected students. It also offers research stipends and covers costs such as travel expenses and conference fees. “The scholarship made it possible for me to transition directly into graduate school and fully dedicate myself to my academic and research goals,” says Mathew.
Most importantly, Mathew was able to perform valuable research into cyberbullying.
She
says she’s been attuned to this issue since adolescence, having grown up as part of
a generation for whom “social media is one of the biggest ways people communicate
with
one another.” Though never herself a victim of cyberbullying, she witnessed the problem
firsthand during middle school and high school, where classmates grappled with online
attacks that were often hard to trace. “The perpetrator never gets caught, but the
victim is always in a state of recovery,” she says.
With funding from the Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship, Mathew conducted research into students who experienced cyberbullying and their mental health outcomes. She began by surveying more than 300 graduate and undergraduate students on campus, through written assessments and in-person interviews exploring their social media use. Mathew then used AI to analyze the text of their responses. She was able to detect language patterns and categorize the types of cyberbullying that had occurred. The AI model also helped Mathew find common threads among participants’ individual experiences.
“The trends I have noticed are, for people who have earlier exposure or repeated exposure
to cyberbullying, it takes longer for them to recover later on in life,” she says.
“I’ve also noticed that, with a lot of people who experienced cyberbullying when they
were younger and were able to seek treatment early on, they are doing well now. For
people who haven’t sought treatment or gone to therapy, the impact of cyberbullying
still lingers.”
Mathew’s study on cyberbullying speaks to the wide range of research happening at
Seton
Hall. The fact that it was made possible by a scholarship supporting women makes it
all the more meaningful to her, because another one of Mathew’s findings was that
when it comes to cyberbullying, women tend to be targeted more often than men.
This scholarship has enabled me to go beyond what my classes have taught me.”
Mathew believes research like hers is vitally important given the inexorable growth
of social media usage. She says cyberbullying isn’t just a concern for middle school-
and
high school-aged kids. College students rely on social media to connect with one another
and keep abreast of happenings on campus, so “it’s important to raise awareness that,
no
matter your age, you could potentially be a victim. It’s also important to bring awareness
to how we can help students who’ve been through these situations.”
Thanks to the Luce scholarship, Mathew has been able to present her cyberbullying research at a number of academic conferences. Her accompanying thesis will be published in Seton Hall’s eRepository for dissertations and theses, making it accessible to other researchers and scholars, as well as mental health professionals. She also hopes her research will benefit the psychological services that Seton Hall provides to students.
“This scholarship has enabled me to be well rounded and go beyond what my classes have taught,” Mathew says. “I’ve gained valuable professional experience and dipped my toes in a lot of different realms, from cybersecurity to data analysis to AI. It has exposed me to new opportunities and opened more doors than I could have imagined.”
CBL also helped Mathew solidify her professional ambitions. As an undergrad, she didn’t know what field she wanted to go into. Now she’s passionate about a career in data engineering and data analysis, potentially in the healthcare industry. As a first-generation American, she’s proud to be a role model for her younger siblings.
“I wanted to be an example to them,” she says. “I’m proud to be a woman working in the STEM field, and I’m grateful that, thanks to the Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship, other women will have the same opportunity to cultivate their research interests as I did.”
