Dr. Kenneth J. Pakenham Memorial Endowed Scholarship

The Dr. Kenneth J. Pakenham Memorial Endowed Scholarship was established in January 2020 by Pamela McCarthy in memory of her husband, Dr. Kenneth Pakenham. After teaching for three decades, Dr. Pakenham retired from The University of Akron in 2010 as Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of English, where he taught linguistics and English as a Second Language, He also served as director and an instructor for the English Language Institute.

Dr. Pakenham, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) with master’s degrees from the University of Essex and the University of Leeds (U.K.), was the author of Expectations: Language and Reading Skills for Students of ESL (Prentice Hall), and three editions of Making Connections: Skills and Strategies for Academic Reading (Cambridge University Press). His wife, Pam McCarthy (1970, 1989), and twins, Michael (2011) and Kate (2011) Pakenham, are all University of Akron graduates.

With is inception in 2020, this scholarships commemorates The University of Akron’s 150th Sesquicentennial Anniversary.

The Dr. Kenneth J. Pakenham Memorial Endowed Scholarship is open to students majoring in English, with first consideration given to those pursuing a certificate in Linguistic Studies or Teaching English as a Second Language. Academic merit and financial need will also be considered. Scholarship assistance will be applied directly to the recipient’s student account and may be used to cover costs of tuition and fees. Recipients and scholarship amounts will be determined by the Department of English.