Rebecca Nieto, a master’s student in the Library and Information Science (MLIS) program at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, is a 2014 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship. The Mosaic Scholarship provides funding to students who demonstrate potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archival profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.
Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Nieto earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Oberlin College. While pursuing that degree, Nieto worked as a reference assistant at Oberlin’s Mudd and Clarence Ward Art Libraries. Following her graduation, Nieto spent a year as a library assistant at Albuquerque Academy and volunteered with Indian Pueblo archives.
As a graduate student at McGill, Nieto is working to earn an MLIS degree with a concentration in Archival Studies. Nieto, an Association of Research Libraries Diversity Scholar, is also spearheading an SAA student chapter at her institution.
Nieto’s supporters commended her exceptional academic work. “[Nieto] is bright and articulate and often stimulates classroom discussion with her thoughtful comments,” one supporter wrote. “Her written work, including a major term paper, is clear and analytical. In her term paper, she demonstrated a strong grasp of the appraisal issues involving both government and personal records and a showed a fine understanding of the different challenges faced by archivists in these areas.”
First awarded in 2009, the Mosaic Scholarship also provides recipients with a one-year membership in the Society of American Archivists and a complimentary registration to the 2014 Joint Annual Meeting. Also receiving a 2014 Mosaic Scholarship is Maria Sanchez-Tucker, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.