June 2009

Student Achievers

Austin College Students Receive Fulbright Awards

any recent college graduates are facing the task of their first job search in the midst of high national unemployment and a bleak world economic outlook. Nathan Withers ’09 — who finished coursework for his degree with majors in political science and media and society in January — has discovered the advantages of getting an undergraduate education that provides more than just fodder for an impressive résumé (though he has one of those, too).

Nathan cites programs such as the Posey Leadership Institute and Model United Nations for providing numerous and memorable educational experiences, from attending speeches by leadership experts Michael Maccoby and Howard Prince to serving as the head delegate for Austin College at the 2008 National Model United Nations Conference in Xi’an, China.

“I learned more in China about how the international community works than I ever learned in a classroom,” he said. “I will never forget the informal interactions I had with students in China. I felt a sense of global self that is difficult to describe.”

Nathan took advantage of Austin College JanTerms, gaining international exposure in a 2008 course on Afro-Latino culture and traveling to Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In 2006, he spent his spring break with a contingent of Austin College student volunteers working with Presbyterian Disaster Relief in post-Katrina New Orleans.

While Model U.N. may have given Nathan a taste of international politics, he branched out on his own to experience U.S. and Texas politics. He spent his 2007–2008 Christmas break in Iowa, volunteering for the Ron Paul presidential campaign, and he was a delegate to the Texas Republican Convention in Houston, Texas, in June 2008.

Nathan, formerly president and vice president of the Austin College Pre-Law Society, sees law school as a possible future endeavor, but for now, has beaten the odds and found work in these trying economic times. Since November, he has worked as a contractor for the Economic Development Department at the Texoma Council of Governments in Sherman.

“Through the wealth of programs that I was able to become intimately involved with at Austin College, I gained a confidence and readiness for the professional world,” Nathan said. “Through the global emphasis in various programs, I also feel significantly connected as a global citizen and have a greater understanding of the world beyond our borders.”

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Austin College Students Receive Year-End Honors

Monica Martinez ’09 and Parth Shah ’09 were named Outstanding Senior Woman and Outstanding Senior Man at the annual Student Affairs Leadership Awards event this spring. The awards recognize scholastic achievements and co-curricular involvement.

Altrusa Outstanding Senior Woman Award

Monica Martinez, an international relations major, was 2008 student body president and very active at Austin College. She was the student representative for the Austin College Presidential Search Committee and New Science Building Steering Committee.

Selected as an inaugural fellow in the Global Outreach (GO) program, Monica volunteered at an orphanage in Nigeria, where she taught a pre-kindergarten class and tutored village school children during the 2008 summer. She also was student coordinator for the 2008 Alternative Spring Break service trip to Guatemala. She participated in numerous Model United Nations conferences, traveling to New York, Chicago, and China for these events, and serving as head delegate for the fall 2007 conference in Chicago. She was a 2007–2008 Hatton W. Sumners Scholar in political science and was selected for membership in Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor society. She also is a member of Omega Zeta social sorority.

Class work and service programs have taken Monica to Australia, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Outstanding Senior Man

Parth Shah, a biology and religion major, was a member of the Posey Leadership Institute, president of the Indian Cultural Association, chair of the Student Assembly Budget and Finance Committee, and captain of the Roller Hockey Club. A member of the Residence Hall staff, in 2008, Parth received the Residence Life Team Builder of the Year Award. He received the Brittain Memorial Award for an Outstanding Student in Biology in 2007. He also was a member of Chi Tau Chi social fraternity.

He worked for the Department of Biology as a lab assistant and course assistant since 2007. Parth also volunteered for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America and at the Glennie O. Ham Center with an after-school program for elementary school children.

Parth was selected by his classmates to give the 2009 senior commencement address.

Outstanding Freshman Award 

Alicia Houser ’12 received the Outstanding Freshman Award, which recognizes a first-year student who has excelled in leadership and scholarship and who has demonstrated future leadership potential.

Alicia is a member of the Posey Leadership Institute, Model U.N., Rotaract, Student Development Board, and Omega Zeta. Born in Botswana and having lived in Namibia, she has traveled to 10 countries and plans to continue her travels with a 2009 summer Lilly grant to Sierra Leone in West Africa. Alicia’s career plans involve returning to live in Africa and work in the non-profit sector with a nongovernmental organization, AIDS organization, or a humanitarian branch of the United Nations.

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ustin College’s reputation for pre-medical studies and the College graduates’ medical school acceptance rates often draw the aspiring doctor or specialist. Marielle Remillard ’09 was one of those. “I had every intention of pursuing a career in neuroscience and chose to attend Austin College partially for the school’s excellent reputation in the biomedical sciences,” Marielle said. “Like many undergraduates students, however, I changed my mind.”

In May, Marielle graduated summa cum laude from Austin College with a major in mathematics (Honors in Mathematics), a minor in biology, and an entirely new vision for her future career. During her sophomore year at Austin College, she discovered a passion for the study and conservation of water resources. Having grown up in the arid climate of New Mexico (the state receives an average of less than 15 inches of rainfall annually), Marielle was well aware of the importance of water resources to communities.

After visiting Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia during a 2007 JanTerm, she realized the impact of water resources on global issues like poverty and on the functioning of entire societies. “I could witness firsthand the dire need for clean water and improved sanitation,” Marielle said. “When you are living in a place without running water, it is impossible to ignore the problems that arise. My education would be emotionless and dry without the experiential knowledge acquired during that JanTerm.”

The experience in Southeast Asia changed her career focus. “I decided that I would dedicate my life to safeguarding water resources and working to improve global access to clean water — working as an environmental engineer,” Marielle said. As she began to seek out courses and educational experiences that reflected her change in academic and career focus, she found Austin College’s educational opportunities flexible and fulfilling for the non-pre-medical student as well.

Marielle participated in the Model United Nations program to expand her knowledge of international political structure and environmental law. With the help of her peers and a few Austin College student organizations, she organized two WaterCan Walk for Water 6-K charity races. “In 2008, we educated more than 150 participants and volunteers and raised $3,000 for clean water projects in Eastern Africa,” she said.

Marielle also took her education off-campus. In 2008, she took courses in fluid mechanics, Middle Eastern studies, business, and Arabic during a fall semester study abroad program at the American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). She spent the 2008 summer in Alaska taking courses and working for a watershed analysis group, Geo-Watershed Scientific, and continued work with the company after completing her degree in January 2009.

This fall, Marielle will attend Johns Hopkins University to earn a master’s degree in environmental engineering, funded by the Department of Homeland Security Fellowship program. She intends to use the degree to assist with disaster relief and sustainable development. “While Austin College is noted for excellence in biomedical sciences, I believe its strongest trait is producing students who know how to think and ask questions, regardless of the discipline,” she said. “I now have been at a few undergraduate institutions, and I am glad to say that my degree comes from Austin College.”

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Class of 2009 Top Scholars Named

Each year during Commencement, the J.C. Kidd and J.M. Robinson Scholarship Medals are awarded to the graduates with the highest academic records. Faculty members select the recipients, with no distinction between them, on the basis of students’ entire academic records. The 2009 Kidd Medal was awarded to Matthew Holzgrafe and the Robinson Medal was awarded to Amanda Rehling.

Amanda Rehling graduated summa cum laude with majors in political science and Spanish and a minor in sociology. She received a full-tuition, with stipend, Hatton W. Sumners Foundation Scholarship to pursue her legal education and this fall, will enter Oklahoma City University School of Law. She plans to become a practicing attorney, anticipates working in the public sector as a prosecutor, and hopes to ultimately serve as a district attorney or assistant United States attorney.

Those are areas she knows about, having completed internships at the United States Attorney’s Office in Plano, Texas, and at the Grayson County Attorney’s Office in Sherman to explore her interests in the legal field. She said those opportunities to delve a bit below the surface left her even more fascinated with the law.

Amanda spent spring 2008 in a study abroad program in Sevilla, Spain, in order to sharpen her oral proficiency and heighten her perspective. “I found that discovering another culture and another way of living and thinking is one of greatest and most rewarding adventures a human being can experience.”

At Austin College, Amanda was actively in Campus Activities Board, Student Development Board, the Pre-Law Society, and Mentors in Violence Prevention. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Chi national honor societies, Pi Sigma Alpha national political science honor society, and Sigma Delta Pi national honor society in Spanish.

Amanda was awarded a Hatton Sumners Scholarship in political science at Austin College that offered opportunities “critical in cementing my desire to pursue a career in public service,” she said, including opportunities to meet with distinguished leaders and public servants through the Sumners Foundation Distinguished Lecture Series.

“The individuals I met through the foundation embody the citizenship and leadership traits that I strive to emulate. I have learned that leadership means service. I am incredibly grateful for the Sumners Foundation's support, and am excited and honored to have an opportunity to continue to represent the foundation as an Oklahoma City University School of Law Hatton W. Sumners Scholar.”

Matthew Holzgrafe graduated summa cum laude with majors in economics and French, with Honors in Economics. He will soon begin training for a two-year Teach for America assignment in New York City.

Following that experience, he is considering pursuit of a law degree.

The competitive Teach for America program last year received nearly 25,000 applications and accepted only 3,700 corps members who are assigned to 29 regions across the U.S. Teach For America aims to end educational inequity by enlisting the nation's most promising future leaders as teachers in some of the neediest areas, including low-income communities and inner-city schools.

At Austin College, Matthew was very involved in a range of activities. A member of the Posey Leadership Institute, he also was involved in Environmentally Concerned Organization of Students (ECOS), Young Democrats, and was an officer in Student Assembly.

Matthew served as a peer tutor with the Academic Skills Center, tutoring particularly in academic areas of economics, French, and calculus. He also was a little brother of Omega Zeta social sorority.

He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Chi national honor societies, as well as Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international honorary society for students in economics, and Pi Delta Phi, national honor society in French.

This year, Matthew completed an honors thesis in economics, researching “Disparities in Health Based upon Socioeconomic Status and Race: a Case Study of NYC. “The process of completing the honors thesis taught me a lot about research and data analysis in the field of economics and helped me grow significantly as a researcher,” he said.

Matthew lived in the French area of Jordan Family Language House then put that experiential learning experience to the test, spending a semester in a study abroad program in Grenoble, France. He took advantage of further international study experiences through three JanTerm courses that involved travel to Senegal, Mali, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. “All of these experiences have taught me about the diversity of cultures and yet how small the world is becoming,” he said. “The highlights of my Austin College experience are the places I've been and the friends I've made at Austin College.”

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Jacqueline Welsh, Victoria Sheppard, William Weeks, David Loftice, Trang Ngo, Joshua Pollock, Paige Rutherford, and Miranda Hernandez attended the history honor society conference in Denton.

History Students Make Presentations at Conference

Victoria L. Sheppard ’10 won first prize for the best undergraduate paper presented at the Phi Alpha Theta, national honor society for students of history, conference at the University of North Texas in April. “This was a very competitive accomplishment since more than 60 undergraduate students from more than a dozen colleges and universities presented papers,” said Light Cummins, professor of history and Guy M. Bryan, Jr., Chair of American History.

Sheppard’s prize-winning paper “Women, Marriage, and Singledom in the Nineteenth Century: The Emergence of a Conscious Choice” was researched and written in the History Department’s “Historiography and Historical Methods” seminar during fall 2008.

Other Austin College students presenting papers at the conference were David Loftice ’10, Trang Ngo ’09, Paige Rutherford ’09, Joshua Pollock ’10, and Jacqueline Welsh ’09. A paper by Elizabeth Elliott ’09 was read in a conference session although she was unable to attend. Miranda Hernandez ’11 and William Weeks ’09 also attended the conference.

History faculty Light Cummins, Victoria Cummins, and Jackie Moore attended the conference on behalf of the department.

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The Art of Diplomacy

Representing Mauritius and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Austin College students earned several honors at the National Model United Nations competition in New York City in April. The Mauritius delegation was named Outstanding Delegation and the delegation for Great Britain and Northern Ireland earned Distinguished Delegation ranking. That delegation also won Outstanding Position Paper.

Adnan Marchant ’10 and Marcela Onyango ’09 served as head delegates for the 37 additional Austin College participants. Philip Barker, assistant professor of political science, directed the students.

Sean Killen ’91 and Shelly Williams, professor emeritus of political science, serve on the board of the National Collegiate Conference Association that governs National Model United Nations programs. Eric Cox ’97, a member of the political science faculty at TCU, was elected this spring to the Faculty Advisory Board for the National Model U.N., and Amanda Hunt Williams ’92 was elected as one of the two director generals for the 2010 National Model U.N. conference in New York.

Austin College students attending the National Model U.N. conference in New York City celebrate outside the United Nations Headquarters, posing near the “Sphere Within Sphere” sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro.

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Students Continue Support of Tostan

Austin College students gave up meals, created and sold art, and made cash contributions this spring in support of Tostan, raising more than $750 to support microcredit loans in Senegal.

The College affiliation with Tostan began three years ago through student efforts, and the Service Station maintains the program. This April, the Tostan dinner included a video conversation with Gannon Gillespie, director of U.S. operations for Tostan, and was served by members of the Service Station Board.

Tostan is a Senegal-based community empowerment program that loans small amounts of money directly to small businesses and entrepreneurs in West Africa who otherwise would not qualify for loans. In addition to micro-lending, Tostan — which means breakthrough in the West African language of Wolof — contributes to the human dignity of African people through education about health, hygiene, human rights, literacy, and math. Visit the Tostan website to learn more about the program.

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Campus Newspaper Staff Members Honored

Writers, photographers, and designers of the Austin College newspaper, The Observer, earned first place in points awarded to a college in the Press Women of Texas collegiate competition this spring. First-place awards advance to the National Federation of Press Women contest, with results to be announced in September. Felicia Garvin, Austin College student publications adviser, also received first-place honors for her role.

Students also were honored in April by the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) at its 100th anniversary convention in Dallas. More than 600 students attended the convention, with 52 of 61 member schools represented. Katie Masucci ’11, The Observer sports editor, was elected secretary of TIPA for next year.

Students recognized at the two events for their work were Kira McStay ’10, editor-in-chief; Marcus Urban ’10, photo editor; Katie Masucci ’11, sports editor; Lauren Chiodo ’10, entertainment editor; Lesley Wayler ’11, layout editor; Hector O González ’11, staff cartoonist; Lindsey McLennan ’09, former features editor; Justin Harris ’09, former opinions editor; and Marc Bacani ’11, photographer.

Newspaper staff members, left to right, Lindsey McLennan, Kira McStay, Marcus Urban, Katie Masucci, and Felicia Garvin pose for a photo at the TIPA conference.

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Conference panelist
Merritt O’Boyle ’11 was identified as a male in the feature “Witness to Change” in the last issue. Obviously wrong, we apologize for the error.

Students, Faculty Participate in Undergraduate Conference

Several Austin College students and faculty presented research or served on panels during the 2009 Austin College Undergraduate Research Conference “Darwin 200: Bridging Disciplines/Breaking Boundaries” in April.

The annual undergraduate conference provides an opportunity for students to build professional relationships, prepare for graduate studies, and share their best work,” said Carol Daeley, Shoap Professor of English and coordinator of this year’s conference.

A presentation by David Buss, a leading evolutionary psychologist, highlighted the two-day event. Several alumni made presentations at the conference, as did Fazlur Rahman, an oncologist from San Angelo, Texas, and a member of the Austin College Board of Trustees.

Austin College seniors Matthew Crawford and Aaron Flores prepare to present their paper “Abuse of Pleasure: Sex, Drugs, and Reward.”

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Jade Rutledge ’09 presented her own research at another forum. She begins an internship in July as a guide and educator at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. She will work for a year before beginning graduate school.

Student Proposal Sets Goal of Climate Neutrality

Members of the Austin College “Environmental Policy” class presented their “Proposed Austin College Climate Plan” during an environmental forum on April 28. Casey Check ’09, Maegan Fitzgerald ’09, Ann Huston ’09, Jamie Jenkins ’09, Cara Marusak ’10, and Zach Owens ’10 presented ideas to lessen the College impact on the environment.

The group cited research from an honors thesis by Jade Rutledge ’09 titled “Austin College Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory,” which helped formulate their energy-saving proposal, setting a 2025 goal of “climate neutrality” for the College.

The students’ presentation was in response to Austin College President Oscar C. Page signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, which marks the College’s pledge to eliminate campus greenhouse gas emissions over time. Peter Schulze, director of the Center for Environmental Studies and professor of biology and environmental science, led the course and was the thesis supervisor for Jade’s honors thesis.

Ann Huston ’09 also made presentations at two earlier environmental forums this spring. In “Impacts of a Non-Native Snail in Vietnam” she reported on research in Tram Chim National Park during a fall 2008 semester of study in the “Ecology and Sustainability in the Mekong Delta” program offered through the School for International Training. She presented “The Land Institute and Natural Systems Agriculture” based on her summer internship with The Land Institute in Kansas. After graduating with a major in environmental studies and minors in English and French, she began a temporary job with Environment Texas, working with water conservation and supply in Austin, Texas.

Presentation participants are, left to right, first row, Zach Owens, Jamie Jenkins, Cara Marusak,
and back row, Ann Huston, Casey Check, Maegan Fitzgerald, and Peter Schulze.

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June 2009  

Feedback?

Literary Magazine Takes New Direction

Austin College’s student-produced literary magazine, Suspension, entered a new era in its almost 50-year history with the April 2009 release of the spring edition Death or Something Similar. For the first time in the magazine’s history, submissions to the spring edition were open not only to students, but also to faculty, staff, and alumni. Sarah Thomason ’11, Suspension editor-in-chief, said the goal was to create “a platform for showcasing the best creative work that Austin College has to offer without the pretensions to a prestige sometimes associated with student publications or literary magazines by-and-large.”

Other changes include a biannual production schedule (the fall edition Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll, will appear in September 2009) and a shift in focus from poetry to strong prose. “If our main focus is upon story, the reason is that story is primal; it is an urge we all have to make comprehensible who and what we are, to test for significance the things that happen to us, to weave a charmed circle upon the inexorable progress of time,” said Peter Anderson, associate professor of English and faculty sponsor for the publication.

Other members of the editorial staff were Meghan Smith ’10, writing editor; Leslie Slade ’10, art editor; Jenna Hotz ’10, layout editor; Mackenzie Mayer ’12, Webmaster; and Natalie Taylor ’11, publicity chair. At-large staff were Caitlin Gillis ’11, Carolyn Griffin ’10, Miranda Hernandez ’11, Alisha Kannarr 12, Vanessa Perales ’12, Mary Richardson ’10, and Katherine Wilshusen ’10.

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