The newly minted Dr. High, a COMM alum.

Andy High, who received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in communication at the University of Delaware, successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at Penn State on March 3rd, to earn his Ph.D.

Andy’s research included two of his main interests – social support and computer-mediated communication – focusing especially on comforting conversations.  One of the surprising outcomes of his research was that men were actually better than women at comforting others through an online channel of communication.  Considering a lot of people interact online more than in person, Andy’s research starts a timely and interesting conversation.

For any current undergrads who would like to learn more about social support, consider taking COMM 440, Topics in Interpersonal Communication.  The class’s focus changes each semester, but is always centered around interpersonal communication.

The communication faculty and staff are excited to offer Dr. High their congratulations!