Saturday November 07, 2009
University Prizes and Awards
Outdoor Action Leaders excel both in academics and in campus activities from varsity sports, to student government, and student organizations. Here are some of the most recent awards and prizes received by OA Leaders.
Elizabeth Dilday '09 selected for the Board of Trustees
June 10, 2009 - Princeton University has named six new members of its Board of Trustees. Elizabeth Dilday '09 of Long Beach, Calif., who graduated this year with an A.B. in history. She has devoted herself to the well-being of her peers through the Alcohol Coalition Committee, which she co-chaired last year, and Outdoor Action, which she served as a leader for three years. She played women's water polo for four years, guiding the team as captain for the last two. She also has been an officer of Cap and Gown Club, a class captain for Annual Giving, an Orange Key tour guide, a member of the Butler College Council and a peer health educator for the Eating Concerns Advisers. Next year Dilday will begin the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program at Bryn Mawr College to complete her science prerequisites for medical school admissions.
Fiona Miller '09 receives the Harold Willis Dodds Prize
June 1, 2009 - The Harold Willis Dodds Award is an annual award, established in 1957, to be given to the senior who best embodies the high example set by Harold Willis Dodds during his tenure a fifteenth President of Princeton University; particularly in the qualities of clear thinking, moral courage, a patient and judicious regard for the opinion of others, and a thoroughgoing devotion to the welfare of the University and to the life of the mind.
Fiona Miller, one of this year's recipients, is a Comparative Literature major from Northampton, Massachusetts is an outstanding student and serves as the Head Undergraduate Fellow at the Princeton Writing Program. During Fiona’s years at Princeton she has been a strong and visible leader in the LGBT community and her commitment to activism has been unwavering. She has served as an officer in the Pride Alliance and has been a stalwart figure in that organization’s success. She has helped organize many of the activities that support LGBT students, such as Pride Week, the Film Festival and National Coming Out Day to name a few, and has been particularly attuned to the needs of LGBT students of color. She has been a central figure in the Peer Educator Program and has demonstrated outstanding leadership both in training new students for the program and in her presentations to freshmen. Perhaps her most significant contribution has been her informal leadership of the LGBT women’s community. She hosted a weekly gathering for students which served to build a strong sense of community for those who participated and provided a confidential space to discuss issues of identity. Fiona has also been active and committed participant in Princeton’s Outdoor Action program as both a trip leader and as a leader-trainer.
Chris Simpson '09 wins the Dale Fellowship
Chris Simpson, one of the key staff at the Outdoor Action Climbing Wall over the past four years, has been selected as this year's recipient of the Dale Fellowship.
by Jennifer Greenstein Altmann
May 14, 2009 - The summer after his freshman year at Princeton, Christopher Simpson returned home to South Kingstown, R.I., where he had lined up a part-time job at a hotel. But when he learned that a local art center was going to sit vacant all summer, he gathered some high school friends and, in a moment of impetuosity, said to them, "Let's do a play!"
The production of Neil Simon's "Rumors," which Simpson directed, was so successful that he established the nonprofit Courthouse Theater Company at the center and, serving as its artistic director and CEO, spent subsequent summers directing plays there. Now, as he nears the end of his senior year, Simpson is poised to direct again — the first time the theater will put on a full season — as the 2009 winner of the Martin Dale Fellowship.
The $30,000 fellowship is awarded annually to a graduating senior to allow him or her "to devote the year following graduation to an independent project of extraordinary merit that will widen the recipient's experience of the world and significantly enhance his or her personal growth and intellectual development."
"This is an opportunity most theater artists don't get," Simpson said. "Thanks to the Dale, we have the chance to do these shows without worrying, 'What if a play is a failure?' It's a great safety net."
Simpson always has loved performing in and directing plays, but it wasn't until he took a directing workshop with Tim Vasen, a lecturer in theater and dance and the Lewis Center for the Arts, that his approach to theater began to crystallize for him.
"The class confirmed for me that the way I think of directing — as a collaboration — is a valid approach that actually works," Simpson said.
To Simpson, a director's job is "is to take the good things that are happening among the writers, the actors and the designers and expand on them, pushing the group to greater heights," he said.
Robert Sandberg, a lecturer in theater and dance and the Lewis Center, said, "All over the country, theaters are laying off staff, downsizing their seasons and even going out of business. But here's Chris, with his Dale Fellowship, transforming a small summer theater into a full-fledged, year-round operation. ... It shows how gutsy, determined and forward-thinking he is. He's turning the Dale's generosity to him into a gift for his entire town."
In addition to directing 10 plays at the theater in Rhode Island, Simpson has directed several projects at Princeton, including a 2008 production of "Hamlet," the annual Student Playwrights Festival and the University's 24-Hour Play Festival, a theatrical event for which new work is written, rehearsed and performed in 24 hours. He also worked on productions with the Program in Theater and Dance, the Princeton Shakespeare Company, Theater Intime and the Black Arts Company: Drama.
"The toughest thing to do in the American theater is to set oneself up as a director," said Michael Cadden, director of the Program in Theater and Dance. "Now Chris will be able to do what it is a young director needs to do most — direct. And he'll be in the happy position of directing plays he has chosen for an audience he already knows, many of whom are already familiar with his work from the summer seasons he has staged."
Simpson is majoring in comparative literature and earning certificates in African studies and theater and dance. He has combined those interests in original ways, such as when he directed a Princeton production of the East African play "Amezidi," which originally was written in Swahili by Tanzanian author Said Ahmed Mohamed. The play explores the lives of two characters who embrace fantasy to help them in their struggle with poverty.
Simpson began studying Swahili as a freshman. While taking time off from the University during the 2007-08 academic year, he traveled for three months in Kenya, where he worked with development organizations and with a theater company that allowed him to direct a production of "Amezidi" in Swahili. After his return, he translated the play into English and directed a production on campus last October for his senior thesis.
In the coming year, Simpson plans to expand the mission of the newly renamed Contemporary Theater Company so that it eventually will operate as a community arts center, offering musical and visual arts programming, a summer camp and night classes for adults.
"I want to fill a need in the community and to help people find a means for self-expression in their everyday lives," said Simpson, who may pursue a master's degree in directing after the Dale Fellowship. He also hopes the theater company will demonstrate "that high-quality art is attainable on a local level, and can be available for everyone to enjoy, not just the wealthy and the elite." To that end, the top price for tickets to performances will be $10.
The seven plays Simpson will direct over the next year will be in a diverse range of styles and historical periods, all of them examining the theme of what happens when one's identity is tied up in material possessions that are lost. That subject will resonate with audience members during the current economic downturn, Simpson said. Among the plays he will direct are "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Little Shop of Horrors," "Melancholy Play" and "The Metamorphoses."
"I want to present real-world issues through these texts, but at the same time make it entertaining," he said.
Jacob Aronson '11 Wins Martin A. Dale Sophomore Award
Jacob Aronson '11 is one of the recipients of the Dale Summer Award which provide a $4,000 stipend to pursue a summer project not connected to their academic coursework. Josh's Project is “The Long Path Back to the Basics” a summer long 400 mile backpacking trip on the Long Path from Fort Lee, NJ, to Altamont, NY, near Albany. His summer travels will be documented on his Blog at www.longbrownpath.com.
"The Long Path is a trail that begins just a few miles from my house. Growing up, I would often go hiking on a short section nearby, but I was always intrigued by the possibility of hiking to the other end, 400 miles away. After spending last summer working long days in an overly air conditioned office, I decided that I wanted to do something different this summer. Last fall, I decided that I would hike the Long Path, spending some time to reflect and "get back to the basics." I was honored to win a Dale Award to allow me to fulfill my personal dream of hiking the Long Path as well as Vincent Schaefer's 75-year-old dream of hiking from New York City to Whiteface Mountain ."
Davion Chism '09 and Fiona Miller '09 selected for Spirit of Princeton Award
April 28, 2009 - The Spirit of Princeton Award recognizes students who have demonstrated a strong commitment to the undergraduate experience through contributions to student organizations, athletics, community service, religious life, residential life and the arts.
Senior Davion Chism, a politics major from Lancaster, Calif., has been a student leader particularly serving the black student community, serving as president of the Black Student Union, co-president of the Princeton Association of Black Women and volunteer with the Black Student Union's Leadership and Mentoring Program. During her freshman year she helped establish the Pan-African Graduation ceremony, which celebrates the achievements of graduates from the African diaspora. She also served this year as the Class Day chair on the Senior Commencement Committee. In addition, Chism dances with the Raks Odalisque Middle Eastern dance troupe, and is a member of the Undergraduate Student Government U-Council, a building supervisor at the Frist Campus Center and a CPR instructor for the Outdoor Action program. (seated far right second row)
Senior Fiona Miller of Tucson, Ariz., is a peer educator on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, served as co-president of Pride Alliance and worked as the LGBT Center's undergraduate intern. Miller was an officer of the Black Student Union, a member of the Black Arts Company and an Outdoor Action trip leader. A comparative literature major, Miller is a head fellow at the Writing Center and was a recipient of the Martin A. Dale '53 Summer Fellowship, which she used to organize, archive and document the artwork and personal papers of artist-collagist Earl B. Miller. (seated far right bottom row)
Adam Hesterberg '10 receives Goldwater Scholarship
April 22, 2009 - Two Princeton juniors have been selected to receive Goldwater Scholarships, which are awarded to outstanding students interested in careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. The scholarship honoring Sen. Barry Goldwater is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.
The 2009-10 Princeton winners include Adam Hesterberg, a mathematics major and Outdoor Action Leader from Seattle.
The 278 Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,097 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. Virtually all intend to obtain a Ph.D.
The one- and two-year scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.
Carolyn Edelstein '10 and Simonne Li '10 selected as 2009 Scholars in the Nation's Service
February 23, 2009 - The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs has selected five students to be the 2009 undergraduate cohort of the Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative (SINSI), a scholarship program designed to encourage and prepare students seeking to pursue careers in the U.S. government.
All Princeton juniors are eligible to apply for the competitive program. Selected students spend their final three semesters in college completing their majors along with courses in public policy, developing a familiarity with career opportunities in the federal government and spending the summer after their junior year in a federal government internship.
After earning their bachelor's degrees, students are admitted into the Woodrow Wilson School's two-year master in public affairs (MPA) program. After completion of their first year of graduate study, students work for two years in the federal government before returning to Princeton to complete the final year of the graduate program. Scholars also have the opportunity for intensive language training in the language of their choice during one summer.
Two Outdoor Action Leaders were selected as 2009 Scholars in the Nation's Service:
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Katie Lewis-Lamonica '08 wins the Dulles Award
Mary Katherine (Katie) Lewis-Lamonica of Lawrenceville, N.J., received the Allen Macy Dulles '51 Award, which is presented to a senior whose activities while at Princeton best represent or exemplify the University's informal motto: "Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations." A Woodrow Wilson School major, Lewis-Lamonica served as vice president of Engineers Without Borders, helping to design and implement a solar energy project in Peru. She also volunteered as an English as a second language tutor and as a youth mentor in the Trenton Bridge Lacrosse Program. In addition, she was an Outdoor Action trip leader.
On the lacrosse field, Katie Lewis-LaMonica ’08 was used to being the go-to girl. The midfielder from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, was the 2005 Ivy League Rookie of the Year and was named to the 2006-07 24-member U.S. national “Elite” team. She will also have the opportunity to compete for a spot on the 2009 World Cup Team.
It’s no surprise that she could handle pressure off the field as well. In the summer of 2006, Lewis-LaMonica went to Peru with the Princeton chapter of Engineers Without Borders to design and build a solar-energy system for a rural community. As a Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs major with a focus on education and child development, she left the engineering to others and concentrated instead on teaching community members how to use and maintain the system.
According to Lewis-LaMonica, she couldn’t have done it without everything she’s learned at Princeton, both in the classroom and on the playing field. “We gain not only academic knowledge and problem-solving skills from our classes, but also a more practical brand of knowledge from extracurriculars — an understanding of group dynamics and the communication skills necessary for successful collaboration with others. Lacrosse in particular has helped me develop these more practical skills,” she says.
It seems like every facet of her experience at Princeton overflowed into the next. For example, in her classes at the Woodrow Wilson School, she was drawn to issues of race and access to educational opportunities. Outside of class, she has volunteered once a week with the Princeton Justice Project, teaching English to Hispanic immigrants.
For a more personal, interactive encounter with race issues, Lewis-LaMonica participated in Princeton’s Sustained Dialogue program, where small groups of students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds met over meals to candidly discuss delicate issues that might otherwise seem unmentionable. “It creates a safe environment to talk about stereotypes and discrimination,” she says.
In addition, Lewis-LaMonica was a youth mentor in the Trenton Bridge Lacrosse Program and an Outdoor Action trip leader. Her efforts earned her several honors at the end of her college career: the Allen Macy Dulles '51 Award, presented to a senior whose activities while at Princeton best represent or exemplify the University's informal motto, "Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations," and the Arthur Lane '34 Award, given to honor selfless contribution to sport and society by an undergraduate athlete.
Josh Blaine '08 wins the Dale Fellowship
by Jennifer Greenstein Altmann
Princeton NJ — Through a deeply personal exploration of mental illness, senior Joshua Blaine hopes to use his Martin Dale Fellowship to illuminate a subject that many people consider taboo.
Blaine struggled with bipolar disorder — which causes severe shifts in a person’s mood, energy and ability to function — midway through his college career. He spent 18 months battling the disease before gaining control of it with the help of medical professionals.
This year’s Martin Dale Fellowship winner, senior Joshua Blaine, will use the award to pursue an anthropological study of his own experience with bipolar disorder — hoping to help diminish the stigma associated with mental illness. (photo: Brian Wilson)
“There’s a Catch-22,” Blaine said. “Because there’s a stigma, people don’t talk about it, and because of that, the stigma continues.”
During the next year Blaine will undertake an anthropological study of his experience with mental illness, as the winner of the Dale Fellowship. The $27,500 prize is awarded annually to allow a graduating senior “to devote the year following graduation to an independent project of extraordinary merit that will widen the recipient’s experience of the world and significantly enhance his or her personal growth and intellectual development.”
In his Dale proposal, Blaine wrote: “I wish to return as a student of anthropology; as a young man in search of peace of mind; as a storyteller; and as a compassionate individual determined to destigmatize mental illness for the millions of fellow sufferers.”
Using the tools he learned as an anthropology major, Blaine will examine what happened to him by interviewing friends and family members, traveling to the hospital in Luray, Va., where he was treated for bipolar disorder, and studying his medical records. He also will analyze the poetry, drawings and music he created during that period. By reviewing his medical records in conjunction with his writing from the period, he will be able to contrast medical observations about his behavior with what he was feeling at the time.
“My goal is to reframe how I understood the experience and to explain it to others,” Blaine said. “I’m trying to construct a picture of an actual person out of this, rather than a patient.”
Associate Professor of Anthropology João Biehl, Blaine’s thesis adviser, said the study will shed light on an important subject.
“This is an extremely relevant project: to trace mental illness from the perspective of recovery,” Biehl said. “Josh is deeply committed to understanding bipolar disorder as one of the quintessential American medical experiences of today, to destigmatize mental illness, and to inquire into alternative pathways of care and recovery. He has all the methodological tools and theoretical concepts to bring this project to fruition, and I have no doubt that its outcomes will make significant contributions to public culture and to efforts to further humanize mental illness treatment.”
Blaine plans to travel to San Francisco to conduct interviews with his brother and with Princeton graduates who knew him during college. He also will visit Boston, his hometown, to talk to high school friends and family members. He hopes the interviews will shed light not only on what he went through, but also on the experience of dealing with a friend or family member with mental illness.
“I want to ask them, ‘What is it like to encounter someone you’ve known for 20 years in an altered state?’” Blaine said.
Blaine will employ the ethnographic interviewing skills he learned as an anthropology student and honed last summer in New Orleans, where he conducted research for his senior thesis. He did fieldwork with a not-for-profit organization that is helping to rebuild the health system. Blaine spent time observing and talking to mental health professionals, social workers, public health workers and policymakers. His thesis explored individual stories of mental health workers in New Orleans in the context of the social and economic situation in the city.
Using an ethnographic approach to studying his own mental illness should allow Blaine to capture what someone with the disease experiences, gaining insights that are difficult for anthropologists to reach.
“Mental illness in particular poses an interesting problem for the anthropologist,” Blaine wrote in his Dale proposal. “No ethnographer, no matter how good a ‘participant-observer,’ can ever enter fully into the subjectivity of a person undergoing an abnormal psychological experience.”
Blaine plans to assimilate what he learns over the next year by writing essays and fiction about his experiences. He also hopes to deliver lectures on college campuses across the country, and is thinking of attending graduate school for anthropology. He knows that delving into his past won’t be easy for him and those he interviews.
“A couple of friends I’ve mentioned it to said it would be really difficult (to talk about my illness), but they would do it,” Blaine said. “Getting this material out there — by doing this project and being open about it — will do a lot to create a dialogue and open avenues for other people to talk about their experiences.”
Anne Armstrong '08 wins ReachOut 56 Fellowship for public service
Princeton senior Anne Armstrong is one of the recipients of the 2008 ReachOut 56 Fellowships, which provide the winners with a $30,000 grant to undertake a yearlong public service project after graduation.
Armstrong, who is from Weston, Conn., will work at a summer camp for children with special health needs, such as HIV, cancer and diabetes.
ReachOut 56 is an effort by Princeton's class of 1956 to help nonprofit organizations perform valuable public service. More than 125 members of the class have contributed funds to the program, which is involved with a number of other public service activities in addition to granting the fellowships. The first fellowships were awarded in 2002.
Candidates for the ReachOut 56 Fellowships find a public service organization that will create a position for them and work with that organization to devise a service project.
Armstrong, a chemistry major, will work as program director for Camp Holiday Trails, a summer camp for children with special health needs in Charlottesville, Va. She has worked at Camp Holiday Trails every summer since her freshman year at Princeton.
In addition to organizing and overseeing the current camp programs, Armstrong plans to implement new programming to provide yearlong support for the children and to help the families of the campers.
"Camp Holiday Trails is a place that I keep going back to because it never fails to inspire, amaze and enlighten me. The children there challenged me to be better in my own life, and they've made me see my own power to make a difference in small but meaningful ways," Armstrong said. "The ReachOut 56 Fellowship has provided an opportunity to spend a year in service to a place that I am incredibly passionate about."
Armstrong won the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence in 2004. Her extracurricular activities include serving as committee chair for the Princeton Model Congress and as a peer academic adviser for Wilson College. She also is undergraduate secretary for the Princeton Tower Club. She plans to attend medical school after her ReachOut 56 Fellowship is completed.
Laura Boyce '07 wins Harold Willis Dodds Prize
June 4, 2007 - The Harold Willis Dodds Prize was given to Laura Boyce of Belmont, N.C. The award recognizes seniors who best embody the qualities of Princeton's 15th president, Harold Dodds, "particularly in the qualities of clear thinking, moral courage, a patient and judicious regard for the opinions of others, and a thorough devotion to the welfare of the University and to the life of the mind." Boyce, a Woodrow Wilson School major and candidate for a certificate in the Program in Teacher Preparation, was a member of the College Democrats and P-Votes, a student-led initiative to promote student civic engagement. Boyce was also a peer educator on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, a volunteer with the Student Volunteers Council's Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, an Outdoor Action trip leader and an active member of her religious group."
Dustin Kahler '07 wins Spirit of Princeton Award
May 3, 2007 - Dustin Kahler '07 is one of nine students who has been selected for Spirit of Princeton award. The Spirit of Princeton Awards honors undergraduates who have positively contributed "to various facets of the University, including the arts, community service, student organizations, residential living, religious life and athletic endeavors," has been awarded to 10 students this year.
Tamara Broderick '07 wins Marshall Scholarship
November 27 , 2006 - Tamara Broderick is one of four Princeton students to win a Marshall Scholarship. The coveted scholarship provides recipients with the opportunity and funds for two years of graduate study in any field at any institution in the United Kingdom. The scholarship — named after former U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall — was established in 1953 as an effort to give American college students an experience in the United Kingdom and to thus improve relations between the two nations.
Broderick, a mathematics major from Cleveland, plans to focus primarily on the intersection of probability theory, measure theory and machine learning, subjects she became interested in through her junior and senior year independent work.
She won the Goldwater Scholarship last year for her work in mathematics and physics and has spent past summers researching dark energy and gravitational lensing.
"There's just something exciting about spending two years in England," she said. "I always wanted to go abroad but was afraid to miss the opportunity to take math classes at Princeton."
Andrew Lapetina '07 received Class of 1978 Community Service Fellowship
May 5, 2006 - Six Princeton students have been awarded Class of 1978 Community Service Fellowships to support their work in a variety of service projects this summer.
The winners receive awards ranging from $2,000 to $3,000. The fellowships were awarded by the Class of 1978 Foundation, which was created by members of the class shortly after their graduation in an effort to support community service.
One of this year's winners is an Outdoor Action Leader.
- Andrew Lapetina, a junior civil engineering major, will lead a group of eight students from Princeton's chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA to build and install an irrigation system in Kumudo, a small village in Ethiopia.
Krista Brune '06 wins Spirit of Princeton Award
May 3, 2006 - Krista Brune '06 is one of nine students who has been selected for Spirit of Princeton award. The Spirit of Princeton Awards recognize students whose positive contributions to the University have gone largely unrecognized. Krista has done extensive work with the prison justice system, helping to raise funds and create a workshop curriculum for a prison population. "I'm using creative arts and literature to connect to prisoners and to understand the power of literature as a form of healing," she said. "It's a very important field and it's a way to humanize it. We are all human. We all need art."
Tamara Broderick '07 wins Goldwater Scholarship
March 20, 2006 - Tamara Broderick along with three other juniors was selected as a winner of the 2006 Goldwater Scholarship on the basis of their academic merit in math, science or engineering.
The $7,500 award is designed to "provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in those fields," according to the scholarship's website. The prize money will go towards tuition and fees in the 2006-07 academic year.
Broderick has been conducting research since her senior year in high school, when she studied the physics of dark energy. In the summer after her freshman year, she worked with the Gravity Group in the physics department on a project about gravitational lensing.
Krista Brune '06 wins ReachOut 56 Fellowship for public service
February 14, 2006 - Princeton seniors Krista Brune and Derrick Raphael have been awarded 2006 ReachOut 56 Fellowships, which provide the winners with a $25,000 grant to undertake a yearlong public service project after graduation.
Brune, who is from Centennial, Colo., will conduct research for a book on arts and education programs in prisons.
ReachOut 56 is an effort by Princeton's class of 1956 to help nonprofit organizations perform valuable public service. More than 100 members of the class have contributed funds to the program, which is involved with a number of other public service activities in addition to granting the fellowships. The first fellowships were awarded in 2002.
Daniel Gardiner, a 1956 Princeton alumnus who chairs the ReachOut 56 initiative, said, "The two fellows we have selected, Krista Brune and Derrick Raphael, are outstanding seniors with fine records of achievement and public interest activity. They have devised significant projects for worthwhile organizations -- projects that could not be undertaken without our funding."
Brune is majoring in Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures and pursuing a certificate in Latin American studies. She will work with Voices UnBroken, a Bronx-based nonprofit that helps New York correctional facilities and juvenile detention centers to provide inmates with resources for creative expression.
Brune plans to conduct research on arts and education programs in several states through interviews with directors, volunteers and inmates. Her goal is to write a book that records the history of these projects and analyzes the essential elements of successful programs.
"As a literature major, I have seen the power of words and creative expression. I am interested in learning more about how literature and creative expression have been used as healing tools within prisons and juvenile detention centers," Brune said. "While different individuals and groups have done this type of work across the country, the communication between these diverse projects has been lacking. I believe it would benefit nonprofit organizations and universities currently running arts programs in prisons and individuals interested in entering the field to have knowledge of what other groups are doing."
Brune's goals include earning a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese cultures and running creative arts, writing and literature workshops in the prisons while working in a university setting.
Brune won the 2005 Premio Maria Zambrano award for best junior paper in the Spanish and Portuguese department. Her many extracurricular activities include serving as secretary for the Princeton Justice Project and leading its prison reform group. She also has been an Outdoor Action leader, a writer for several campus publications and a translator and tutor for campus and community organizations.
Tamara Broderick '07 Receives George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize
September 11, 2005 - This year's George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize went to Tamara Broderick, a graduate of the Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The award is given to a member of the junior class in recognition of exceptional academic achievement during the sophomore year.
Broderick, who lives in Parma, Ohio, is an A.B. candidate majoring in mathematics. She also plans to complete a certificate in applications of computing. Since coming to Princeton, she has received the Quin Morton '36 Writing Seminar Essay Prize, the Manfred Pyka Memorial Physics Prize and the Eugene Taylor Prize in Physics. Later this month, she will receive the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence for the second time.
Broderick has conducted research in astrophysics since high school, when she contributed to a paper that was published in the Astrophysics Journal. She spent the summer of 2004 at Princeton working on a gravitational lensing problem. This past summer, she worked for the National Security Administration in the Director's Summer Program. After graduation, she intends to go to graduate school in preparation for a career as a college professor.
Broderick is a leader in Outdoor Action, Princeton's wilderness orientation program, and a member of both the math club and Princeton Engineering Education for Kids (PEEK), a program through which undergraduates visit elementary schools and teach children basic principles of engineering using Lego toys.
Azalea Kim '05 receives Sanderson Detwiler 1903 Prize at Class Day
May 30, 2005 - Azalea Kim, president of the Class of 2005 for the last two years, received the W. Sanderson Detwiler 1903 Prize, awarded to the senior who, in the judgment of his or her classmates, has done the most for the class. A Woodrow Wilson School major from Yonkers, N.Y., Kim served as a team leader for the Arts Alive program, a core member of the University Honor Committee and a leader of the Outdoor Action program.
Princeton Seniors win Fulbright grants to study abroad
May 26, 2005 - Ten Princeton seniors (including three Outdoor Action Leaders) have been awarded Fulbright grants to study abroad after graduation. The students and the countries in which they plan to study are: Jessica Aisenbrey '05, Argentina; Benjamin Good '05, Germany; Laura Jones '05, Germany; Nicholas Kessides '05, Greece; Steven Lauritano, Germany; Katharine Moore, Germany; Christopher Rizzi '05, Morocco; Evelyn Thai '05, Hong Kong; Yousefi Vali, Syria; and Emily Woodman-Maynard '05, Brazil.
The Fulbright program was established in 1946 to demonstrate U.S. commitment to democratic values worldwide. It is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. The program operates in more than 140 countries and awards approximately 4,500 new grants each year, including funding for roughly 1,100 American students to study or conduct research abroad.
Kyle Meng '05 wins Dale Fellowship
April 25, 2005 -
The $25,000 Dale fellowship is awarded annually to a graduating senior to allow him or her "to devote the year following graduation to an independent project of extraordinary merit that will widen the recipient's experience of the world and significantly enhance his or her personal growth and intellectual development." Meng's project is titled "Unearthing the Dragon: Understanding How the Chinese Perceive Their Environment."
"The Dale fellowship is an unbelievable opportunity, and I'm still in a state of disbelief that I've been fortunate enough to receive it," said Meng, who is majoring in civil engineering with a focus on environmental engineering.
Now a resident of Chappaqua, N.Y., Meng emigrated to the United States from China when he was 6 years old to join his parents, who had moved here to pursue advanced degrees. While the family decided to stay in this country, the Chinese culture remained a significant part of their lives. Meng grew up speaking Cantonese and English, and has taken Mandarin at Princeton. He has returned to China with his family several times to visit relatives.
Last summer, Meng lived in Beijing and worked at the Tsinghua-BP Clean Energy Research and Education Centre. He conducted research on carbon dioxide emissions for his senior thesis, titled "Identifying Opportunities for Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Projects in China."
Carbon dioxide, which comes predominantly from burning carbon-based fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, is considered the main contributor to greenhouse warming. Scientists are interested in capturing the carbon and sequestering it underground to prevent global emissions from rising. Meng and his advisers, Michael Celia, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Robert Williams, senior research scientist in the Princeton Environmental Institute, will present findings from this project in early May at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.
While pursuing his engineering degree, Meng also has explored the arena of public policy in his academic and extracurricular work. He is earning a certificate in environmental studies, through which he has studied the political and humanistic -- as well as the scientific and technological -- aspects of environmental problems.
He has served as president of the Global Issues Forum, a student organization dedicated to improving the understanding of global affairs on campus. He organized a faculty-student China symposium that featured a keynote address by the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations as well as fund-raisers for relief efforts in war-torn Darfur, Sudan, and for tsunami victims in Southeast Asia. He spent the summer of 2003 in Thailand working as an intern with the International Rescue Committee.
Meng also has other diverse interests. He has played classical piano for 18 years, frequently performing at Princeton, and is completing a second certificate in music performance. In addition, he contributes biweekly columns on a variety of topics related to the Princeton experience to The Daily Princetonian student newspaper.
As he looks beyond graduation, Meng sees himself combining his passions for engineering and public policy. "I decided to be an engineer for the benefits of a technical background," Meng said. "But I'm now interested in applying that training into policy and service oriented work."
The Dale fellowship represents a significant step toward that goal, and Robert Williams, his thesis adviser, believes Meng will be successful in this endeavor.
"Although Kyle's primary training is in environmental engineering, I am confident that he can make an outstanding contribution in the area of his proposed research because of his keen intellect, his passionate love of both China and environmental problem solving, his strong writing and interpersonal skills, and the talent he demonstrated to me, as an adviser for his senior thesis, in learning what he needs to know outside of his field of basic training in order to solve a problem," Williams said. "Also, in the environmental analysis field I am constantly on the lookout for students who can both understand in detail technical aspects of an environmental problem and appreciate the broader societal and public policy issues. Kyle is one of those rare students who has the potential for doing both well."
The idea for the Dale fellowship project jelled while Meng was in China last summer. Through his research on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, he experienced firsthand the resistance to dealing with such issues and observed an environmental movement that is struggling to gain momentum.
He said that the Chinese government, under increasing international pressure, has become more environmentally friendly in its rhetoric. However, Meng noted, environmental regulations are rarely enforced locally.
"Overwhelmed by pressures to develop, local governments often neglect the principles of sustainability, conservation and accountability in order to achieve economic growth," Meng wrote in his Dale proposal. "Instead, what has proven to be the greatest impetus for change have been the Chinese people … [who] have protested successfully against polluting businesses and corrupt government officials. If change will come most effectively through a grassroots movement, it is highly important that we understand just how the Chinese perceive their environment."
He plans to focus primarily on how perceptions have changed in light of China's recent development and how they differ across China's geographical, socioeconomic and generational divides.
Meng has already begun his project by starting to familiarize himself with the relevant scholarship -- in English and Chinese -- on the topic. Once in China, he will collect qualitative and quantitative data through fieldwork and interviews. While in Beijing last summer, he contacted Professor Qi Ye, an expert on Chinese environmental policy in the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University. He will serve as Meng's mentor, helping him to gain access to government officials, environmentalists and members of nongovernmental organizations.
Meng plans to travel extensively, obtaining much of his information on perceptions about the environment from the people of China. "Much of my research will be done through conversations," he said.
Although excited by the thought of what's ahead, Meng said that he's also a bit daunted by his undertaking. Much of his work will be planned as he goes along, which he admits is somewhat unsettling.
"I feel fortunate because with the Dale fellowship I'll have so much freedom to explore and not be confined to a certain institution or a course of direction," he said. "But at the same time I know that with so much freedom I will be making decisions as things unravel and might even feel lost for a good portion of my time in China."
However, Meng said that he is looking forward to the opportunity for some additional self-discovery next year. "I've had so much exposure to so many things at Princeton," he said. "It's important for me now to sort out these experiences and to take time to internalize these new elements into my life."
He expects that graduate school will be part of his future plans and also has "a sense that China and the environment will play a very big role in my life."
Jennifer Albinson '05 wins Spirit of Princeton Award
April 21, 2005 - Since its inception in 1995, the Spirit of Princeton Award has recognized a select group of undergraduate students who have made positive contributions to various facets of the University, including the arts, community service, student organizations, residential living, religious life and athletic endeavors. This award acknowledges those students whose service has gone unrecognized by the greater Princeton University community. Recipients are honored at a dinner, where they are presented with a certificate and book prize.
Amy Saltzman '05 Receives 2005 Pyne Prize
February 26, 2005 - Amy Saltzman, an OA Leader and Leader Trainer trainer from Gates Mills, Ohio, was selected for the M. Taylro Pyne Prize, the highest award that the University bestows on an undergraduate. Amy is concentrating in anthropology and also has done a significant amount of work in molecular biology. As she has put it: “Although I have wanted to be a doctor from a very young age, anthropology has challenged me to look at my goal in a new way. ... Looking forward, I aspire to combine the practice of medicine with ethnographic fieldwork and teaching in social medicine, each enriched by anthropological understanding.”
Saltzman has assisted in research in the genetics department at Case Western Reserve University, at Athersys Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in Cleveland, in the social medicine department at Harvard University, and in the molecular biology and anthropology departments at Princeton. Anthropology professor João Biehl has compared her “intellectual excitement, social-mindedness, and all-too-rare capacity to integrate theory and observation” to that of the young Margaret Mead.
Like that famous anthropologist, Saltzman has traveled to Melanesia to do fieldwork. She spent last summer in Fiji, where she conducted research for her senior thesis on the postnatal experience, including postpartum depression, of ethnic Fijian women against a backdrop of rapid social and economic change. She has been a key organizer behind the University’s Undergraduate Research Symposium and its Bioethics Forum.
Also active in extracurricular activities, Saltzman has participated in the Undergraduate Student Government since her sophomore year, first as a U-councilor, then as academics chair and currently as U-Council chair. She played an instrumental role in reinvigorating the University’s preceptorial system, helping to craft a guide for students, preceptors and course heads called “Inspired Conversations: The Princeton Precept.” She also served as a wilderness leader for Outdoor Action, a pre-orientation program for freshmen.
A graduate of the Hathaway Brown School, Saltzman is the daughter of Mark and Shelly Saltzman of Gates Mills, Ohio.
In recognizing her at the Alumni Day ceremony, Princeton President Tilghman predicted that Saltzman’s “blend of passion and compassion will carry [her] far and, in the process, humanize and elevate any field in which she works.”
Amy's Acceptance Speech"When I first arrived in Fiji this summer to conduct thesis research on motherhood in the context of social change, adapting to life in a totally unfamiliar developing country was more difficult than I had anticipated. Not only were there ants trekking through my curried chicken and scabies wrapped in every child’s hug, but I had little previous experience conducting ethnography and had to figure out how to listen to and engage with people as an anthropologist. Almost immediately, I thought to myself: How would I ever feel comfortable in the field? And more pessimistically, how did I ever get into this mess? The feeling was oddly familiar. When my parents dropped me off at 1938 Hall at the beginning of my freshman year, I was completely discombobulated. Nervous and unsure of what to expect, I showed up in front of Dillon gym to meet my Outdoor Action group wearing hiking boots and a backpack, only to find everyone else in normal clothes. Incredibly embarrassed, I raced back to my room to change. Caught off-balance, I wondered how I was going to make it through the next four years. How would I fit in here? What would be expected of me, and would I be able to fulfill those expectations? Would my strengths and confidences from high school carry over into college life, or would I be struggling in this new environment? Most simply, how would I ever feel comfortable at Princeton? These fears didn’t last for long. Even on my Outdoor Action trip, I began to realize Princeton’s greatness. Greatness that lies in simple things: face-to-face contact, a sense of community, genuine engagement, honest curiosity, and intellectual and personal respect. At Princeton, an incredible opportunity, experience, or person lies at every turn. There are days that I get dressed listening to explanations of foreign direct investment in India, have breakfast while learning about environmental planning and vehicle emissions, in seminar hear about a friend’s trip to China to investigate HIV/AIDS policy, and catch a four-thirty talk on the evolution of biochemical processes in apes. I am unbelievably fortunate to have been given the opportunity to experience this place. Last week at a meeting of the Committee of the Princeton University Community, President Tilghman explained that rather than beginning to integrate professional training into its undergraduate curriculum, Princeton has chosen to remain dedicated to providing a liberal arts education to its undergraduates. It prides itself on teaching students how to ask questions not yet asked, apply theory and test its limits, and talk to people in other disciplines to devise new ways of seeing the world. This has made me think of my high school motto, non scholae sed vitae discimus - we learn not for school but for life. My studies of anthropology have been the ultimate “education for life.” Having always wanted to be a doctor, I came to Princeton planning to be a molecular biology major. However, in my first semester in college, I took a course with my future thesis advisor, Joao Biehl, on Medical Anthropology, which challenged me to look at how our understandings of human life and the practice of medicine are changing. With new knowledge about human life and new technologies that have the power to create, sustain, alter, and end that life, an interdisciplinary approach to studying humanness is essential. Anthropology has allowed me to connect my scientific interests and passion for medicine with examinations of how historical and political context shape human experience. It has helped me to study health not only from a molecular and scientific perspective, but as experienced by people in their daily lives. And one of the most exciting parts about studying anthropology here has been the tight-knit, supportive intellectual community that welcomed me. The Anthropology Department has provided a place for my intellectual passions to flourish. All of this “education for life” proved immensely helpful to me this summer in Fiji. Thrown into a completely foreign environment linguistically, culturally, ideologically, and even gastronomically, I had to figure out how to interact with people and establish meaningful relationships while applying anthropological methodologies and theories in ways I had never done before. Through interviews with mothers and health professionals, I saw life in its complicated messiness. In writing my thesis, I am now trying to find some way to represent what I witnessed in Fiji that respects the dynamism and unfinishedness of life in transition. It’s hard to capture my experience here at Princeton in five minutes. Last week at “This is Princeton,” an event showcasing Princeton talent, Emmet Gowin, a renowned professor of photography, talked about the “intellectual and spiritual kinship” that Princeton allowed him to share with his students. As soon as I heard it, his phrase struck me as particularly accurate in describing my “Princeton experience.” For me, the intellectual passions and interpersonal relationships I have formed here are almost spiritual in the deep fulfillment they provide me. So thank you to my family, my advisors, my professors, especially Professor Joao Biehl and Professor Larry Rosen, numerous administrators, the Anthropology Department, Outdoor Action, and especially my friends, for everything you have done to help me find that fulfillment. It is an unbelievable honor to be here today. I was told by those who have experienced it before that it would feel somewhat surreal…and they were definitely right. And to some extent, my entire Princeton experience has felt surreal in that it has far exceeded any expectations I could possibly have imagined four years ago. At the same time, the incredible part is that it has been real. Opportunities and personal growth that seemed unimaginable have become my reality. Thank you." |
Kyle Jaros '05 awarded Sachs Scholarship
February 21, 2005 -- University senior Kyle Jaros has been named the recipient of the 2005 Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship.
The award, one of the highest honors given to Princeton undergraduates, was established in 1970 to provide a senior with the opportunity to study, work or travel abroad after graduation. It will fund Jaros’ tuition and living expenses for next year as he travels to Nanjing University to continue Chinese language study and to research the relationship between Chinese nationalism and China’s foreign policy in the early 20th century.
A native of Palo Alto, Calif., and a graduate of Henry M. Gunn High School, Jaros is an A.B. candidate in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs with a focus on politics and international relations. He intends to pursue an academic or policymaking career in international relations.
“I was incredibly surprised to learn that I had been selected to receive the award,” Jaros said. “I am very excited about the opportunities the scholarship opens up for me, and very humbled by the task of carrying on the legacy of Daniel Sachs ’60 and previous scholars. I owe many thanks to my family, my professors, my friends and my classmates for the encouragement they have given me.”
Classmates and friends established the scholarship in memory of Daniel Sachs, who starred in football and lacrosse at Princeton before attending Worcester College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He died of cancer at age 28. The award is given to the senior who best exemplifies Sachs’ character, intelligence and commitment, and whose scholarship is most likely to benefit the public.
“I consider Kyle Jaros an outstanding young scholar and leader — highly intelligent, well organized, very motivated, thoughtful and considerate — who leads by knowledge, service and example,” said Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, lecturer in public and international affairs and director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination. “He represents the best of what Princeton’s students should and do stand for.”
Currently, Jaros is completing a senior thesis on “Sovereignty Concerns and Multilateralism in Chinese Foreign Policy.” He conducted research in China on this project and also served as a research assistant for the Beijing-based publication, China Development Brief, in the summer of 2004. He attended the Princeton-in-Asia Beijing Intensive Language Program in the summer of 2003.
Recently elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Jaros is a recipient of the Wilson School’s R.W. van de Velde Award and two Shapiro Prizes for academic excellence from the University. Last spring, he co-organized a successful student-faculty colloquium on contemporary China titled “Keeping the Dragon Aloft.” He is a former vice president of the Princeton International Relations Council of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society and the current co-chair of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies Undergraduate Fellows Program. He has been an intern in Princeton’s International Center since 2003.
Jaros is a member of the non-staff editorial board of The Daily Princetonian, and has written a series of editorials and columns for the student newspaper. A backpacking trip leader for Outdoor Action (a University pre-orientation program), he also is a member of Topshelf, a student rock band that has performed in campus venues.
Laura Turner '04 wins Luce Scholarship to study bioethics issues in Asia
May 18, 2004 -- Princeton University senior Lauren Turner has been awarded a 2004-05 Luce Scholarship to spend a year either in Singapore or Japan working on issues related to bioethics.
Turner, of Berwyn, Pa., is an English major and a certificate candidate in American studies. Currently the president of Princeton's Student Bioethics Forum, she plans to use her Luce Scholarship to pursue research on "the legal, ethical and social implications of genetic technologies, especially embryonic stem cell research."
Turner said she will most likely choose from two possible assignments: to conduct research at a university in Singapore while also working with the Bioethics Advisory Committee of Singapore; or to work at a university in Japan with a leading expert on bioethics issues in Asia.
The Luce Scholars Program, administered by the Henry Luce Foundation, provides stipends and internships for 15 young Americans to live and work in Asia each year. Dating from 1974, the program's purpose is to increase awareness of Asia among future leaders in American society.
Turner was chair of the Student Bioethics Forum's 2003 national conference, "Redefining Life: What It Means to Be Human," and also helped organize the group's 2001 conference, "The Ethics and Politics of Reproductive Technologies." The conferences brought together students from around the country with leading scholars, scientists and policy experts to explore major issues related to genetic research.
Turner said she wanted to pursue a postgraduate project in Asia to study the global consequences of the huge investments in genetic research being made in countries such as Singapore, China, Japan and South Korea.
"By experimenting with genetics and reproductive technologies, and by approaching the margins of life differently than most countries, Asian countries force the world to ask important practical and ethical questions," she said.
As an undergraduate, Turner has taken graduate-level seminars on bioethics and biotechnology with Professors Peter Singer and Lee Silver. Last summer, she worked as an intern at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. Turner eventually plans to go to law school to study genetic law and to possibly pursue a master's degree in bioethics.
"Lauren's interest in bioethics is strong, and she has the skills to play a leadership role in this increasingly important field," Singer said. "If we are to be able to navigate our way through the troubled waters of the new genetics, for example, we will need clear thinkers in the future with a talent for presenting issues to wide audiences, and I believe Lauren could, in a few years, be a real asset to such public debates."
Turner also has been a member of the Human Values Forum, Outdoor Action, Arts Alive and the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. She has been a staff writer for the Princeton Alumni Weekly and The Princeton Spectator, and her writing also has been published in The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Princeton Journal of Bioethics.
Spirit of Princeton Awards
Since its inception in 1995, the Spirit of Princeton Award has recognized a select group of undergraduate students who have made positive contributions to various facets of the University, including the arts, community service, student organizations, residential living, religious life and athletic endeavors. This award acknowledges those students whose service has gone unrecognized by the greater Princeton University community. Recipients are honored at a dinner, where they are presented with a certificate and book prize.
2005 - Jennifer Albinson '05
2002 - Sarah Apgar '02; Jamie Bartholomew '02; Becca Jones '02;
