Rockefeller College

Rockefeller College is proud to have three 2011 Spirit of Princeton winners: Jennifer King '11, Jane Yang '11, and Claire Cole '12.  The award honors undergrads for their positive contributions to campus life--and our three winners were picked from a group of more than 120 nominations. 

Check out the official profiles of the Rocky winners:

Jennifer King, a senior from Greenwich, Conn., is concentrating in computer science and pursuing a certificate in information technology and society. A three-year starter on the varsity field hockey team, she has earned numerous accolades as a scholar-athlete, including a spot on the All-Ivy Academic Team as a junior. An avid singer, she performed the U.S. national anthem before home games and later joined the University Glee Club to develop her talents. To inspire her peers, especially women, to explore the sciences, she helped launch two student organizations, the Princeton Student Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery and Princeton Women in Computer Science. Last year she used her computer science skills to formulate a business plan, with classmate Caroline Clark, to develop an online option for speech therapy with the goal of reducing the cost of teaching people how to adjust to and use cochlear implants. The plan tied for first place at the 2010 TigerLaunch Entrepreneurship Competition. After graduation, she will work as a software engineer at Google.    

Jane Yang, a senior from Ypsilanti, Mich., is a chemical and biological engineering major pursuing certificates in engineering biology and sustainable energy. As a member of Engineers Without Borders -- an organization she has led as co-president -- she traveled to Ashaiman, Ghana, in 2009 to help build a community library. She also conducted a range of interviews with residents, and shared some of their stories visually through a photo exhibit in Rockefeller College. Her work in Ghana was supported by a Martin Dale Summer Award. In addition, she has helped inspire the next generation of engineers by co-coordinating programs for Princeton Engineering Education for Kids, an outreach program that teaches robotics and basic engineering principles to local students. She also co-founded Princeton's chapter of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy and helped develop a portable hydrogen generator. Beyond engineering, she is a head fellow at the Writing Center and was a co-leader of the Student Volunteers Council's American Red Cross and Hats for the Homeless organizations. She also has served as a member of the Pace Center's Student Steering Committee, the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women's Leadership and Peak Potential, a mentoring program for children with disabilities. Additionally she participated in creating an online student guide with the USG and blogged for the class of 2014 admitted students website. After graduation she will work for the International Rescue Committee in Kenya through Princeton in Africa before joining Deloitte's federal consulting program with the goal of pursuing a career in international development.

Claire Cole, a junior from Waco, Texas, is concentrating in psychology. She serves on the national team of Students for Education Reform (SFER), a nonprofit organization that was founded at Princeton in 2009. She coordinated SFER's three-day national summit and has served as the organization's communications director. Stemming from her personal interest in education leadership, she is committed to engaging with other students in learning how to affect change, and started a campuswide student leadership training program called Leadership for Change. She has interned with the Program in Teacher Preparation, a position that she proposed and designed. As a campus leader, she is a residential college adviser, an Outdoor Action leader and a Breakout Princeton coordinator through the Pace Center for Civic Engagement. Last year she was the editor-in-chief of the Bric-A-Brac yearbook and president of the Texans Club. She has led a weekly project with the Student Volunteers Council, and served as a summer intern with the Princeton Internships in Civic Service program.  

For the full story, see: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S30/38/23E44/index.xml?section=topstories