Grade A Performance

'08 grads leave with array of lofty plans

May 13, 2008

Dickinson College's Class of 2008 features recipients of prestigious scholarships and awards, and a long list of graduates with unique and ambitious plans.

Here are some of the top awards, scholarships and accolades earned by graduating seniors:

Fulbright Awards

Seven seniors — Erica Lally, Elizabeth Stokely, Daniel Walter, Anne Maiale, Caitlin Hahn, Christina Brumbach and Marissa Calfe — joined the ranks of more than 100 Dickinsonians who have received Fulbright Awards.

Fulbright Awards give recent college graduates, master's and doctoral candidates, young professionals and artists opportunities for personal growth and international experience. The awards foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges.

Lally, an international-studies major from Nicholson, Pa., will study in Russia, where she will collect oral histories from three generations of the Soviet intelligentsia who reside in a community outside of Moscow.

Stokely, an international-studies major from South Hamilton, Mass., received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship grant in Colombia, where she plans to conduct research on Colombian migrations while teaching English at a university.

Walter, a German major from Pittsburgh, will use his Fulbright to teach English in Germany and research modern German literature.

Maiale, a German major from Emmaus, Pa., will use the award to teach English in Germany for a year, during which time she hopes to work or intern at a nonprofit organization.

Hahn, an English and German major from Bath, Pa., also will participate in an English teaching assistantship in Germany.

Brumbach, a political-science major from Pottstown, Pa., will use her Fulbright to teach at a secondary school in Italy.

Calfe, an Italian studies and English major from Oakmont, Pa., will use her Fulbright for a teaching assistantship in Italy.

Rotary Ambassador Scholarship

Katie Creme, an American-studies major and women's-studies minor from Lancaster, Pa., received a $23,000 Rotary Fund Ambassadorial Scholarship to pursue a master's degree in American studies at the University of East Anglia in England.

Rotary International is a global network of community volunteers that works to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational and cultural-exchange programs. Since 1947, nearly 37,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad through its programs, making it the world's largest privately funded international scholarship program.

Goldwater Scholarships

During their junior years, Kristina Gaff and Christian Millichap were awarded Goldwater Scholarships by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program.

Gaff, a physics major from Kendallville, Ind., spent last year studying abroad at the Dickinson College University of Queensland Science Program in Brisbane, Australia. She plans to obtain a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Maryland, where she will conduct research in magneto-hydrodynamics and magnetic reconnection of laboratory solar prominences, which will combine three of her favorite fields: plasma physics, chaos and astrophysics.

Millichap, a mathematics and philosophy major from Royersford, Pa., participated in the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics at The Technical University of Budapest. Prior to his time studying abroad in Hungary, he worked with Nancy Baxter-Hastings, professor emerita of mathematics and computer science, on measure theory and integration. Millichap plans to work as a data research analyst for Dickinson's department of institutional research for a year and then pursue a graduate degree, possibly in theoretical mathematics.

The Goldwater scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from more than 1,000 mathematics, science and engineering students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide.

Mohler Prize

Stacey Mardekian, a neuroscience major from Hillsborough, N.J., received the Roy Mohler prize, a $2,500 scholarship to be used toward graduate study at the Drexel University School of Medicine. The Mohler Prize was established by friends and colleagues of Roy Mohler, class of 1917, on the occasion of his 40th reunion at Dickinson College.

Projects for Peace

Sociology major Caroline Salamack of Miami, Fla., has been awarded a $10,000 grant by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program to help, through a series of workshops, low-income, unemployed single mothers in the District of Columbia gain long-term access to resources by increasing their job eligibility.

Workshops will include topics such as resume writing, interview tips, smart shopping for professional clothing, health care and banking.

Salamack will collaborate with A Wider Circle, a nonprofit organization that has been serving low-income families throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for more than five years. She worked as an intern at a Wider Circle in 2006.

The 100 Projects for Peace program is named for philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, who donated $1 million to the program with the goal of encouraging students to create and implement their ideas for building peace throughout the world. Students were encouraged to design plans to implement this summer, and the 100 projects judged to be the most promising and viable were funded.

Other schools with grant recipients for projects this year include Bowdoin College, Brown University, Bucknell University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Gettysburg College, Georgetown University, Harvard College, Lafayette College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, Princeton University, Swarthmore College, Tufts University and Yale University.

Udall Scholarship

Jensen Gelfond, an environmental-studies major from Asheville, N.C., was awarded a Morris K. Udall Scholarship last year as a junior. Each year the Udall Foundation awards 80 undergraduates scholarships to juniors and seniors in fields related to the environment.

Finnegan Fellowship

Anya Malkov, a policy-management major from Fort Collins, Co., received a Finnegan Fellowship last year as a junior. The purpose of the Finnegan Fellowship is to provide practical training in government and politics through an internship in executive agencies. Malkov participated in a 10-week paid internship in an executive agency in Harrisburg.

Honors, Awards, Miscellany

• Tom Elrod, an English and medieval & early modern studies major from Harleysville, Pa., received a full fellowship to the Ph.D. program in English at the University of North Carolina.
• French government teaching assistantships for 2008-09 were awarded to: Jane Berg, a French major from New York, N.Y.; Anna Cumbie, a French and economics major from Baltimore; and Jamie Wolf, a French major from Dillsburg, Pa.
• Christina Brumbach, a political-science major from Pottstown, Pa., was granted an internship in Mantua, Italy, sponsored by the Lombardy Region, to teach English in Italian high schools. This is a new internship program.
• Jie Gu, a chemistry and biochemistry & molecular biology major from Lakeland, Fla., has been accepted to Stanford University's School of Medicine's graduate program in chemical engineering.
• Denisa Lazarescu, a political-science and Italian-studies major from Bucharest, Romania, will pursue a master's degree at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
• Evan Sparling, a Russian-area-studies and history major, was awarded the history department's Morris W. Prince History Prize for Distinguished Work in History.