Student Awards and Achievements
AWARDS
James Carras ’14 will be studying a broad and interning in Beijing, China this summer through the UNC Minor in Entrepreneurship. The program is in conjunction with Peking University, where he will be studying. In addition, he will be interning at an innovative and entrepreneurial company.
Mia Celnarova ’14 received the International Internship Award to do a 3 month internship in Lusaka, Zambia for the summer.
Desirée Chavis ’12 is a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the National Society of Leadership and Success, the Gamma Kappa Alpha National Italian Honor Society and the Lambda Pi Eta Communications Honors Society. Chavis will be working at Ogilvy & Mather in September.
Megan Dent was accepted into the Tau Sigma Honor Society (for transfer students) with a 3.93 GPA.
Joshua Ford ‘12 received a Fulbright scholarship to study business in Mexico.
Rebecca Hundley ’12 was accepted as a Teaching Fellow for Teach for China and will be working in rural mainland China for two years. She was a Global Scholars Scholarship Recipient for a year-long study abroad program in Taiwan. She was also a recipient of the Center for Global Initiatives Group Project Abroad Award in the summer of 2011.
Mehrin Islam ’12 was the 2012 recipient of the Robert B. House Distinguished Service Award. Established in 1980 by the Rho Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity, in honor of the first Chancellor of the University and one of its most revered leaders, this award is presented to the undergraduate who best exemplifies the spirit of unselfish commitment through service to the University and the surrounding community.
Shatarra Jones ’12 will be teaching Spanish in Charlotte, NC for the upcoming school year.
Sathyaprya Mandjiny ’12 will be graduating with honors and will be working for Teach for America upon graduating.
Anna Melillo will be receiving the FLAS Award for the 2012-2013 academic year.
Cameron Musler ’12 placed third in the Carolina Challenge-Commercial Track. His team founded an educational software company known as STENCIL, and won $1,000. More information about the project can be found at www.stencilventure.com
Layla Quran ’15 Received an Outward Bound Scholarship. In addition, Quran presented her independent research at both Duke and UNC on April 16th. She will be researching the role of music and the arts in the West Bank Palestine Occupied territory this summer through the support of a SURF and C.V. Starr scholarship.
McKay Roozen ’12 was a UNC delegate to the Womensphere Emerging Leaders Global Summit in New York City, a UNC delegate to the World Youth Leaders Forum in Hong Kong in July 2011, a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in China last summer. Pi Sigma Alpha Society for Honors in Political Science, and will be graduating with Honors in Global Studies.
Wendy Song ‘14 received a SURF award to conduct research in Peru about health beliefs and their impact on Oral Health. Also in Peru, she will be interning with Project HOPE in their joint humanitarian medical mission with the United States Air Force.
Elise Stephenson ’12 was a Buckley Public Service Scholar. She was also Vice Presidence of the Alpha of NC Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa Academic Honor Society. Stephenson completed a thesis in global studies this semester, which she will publish in the summer. In the Fall, Stephenson will attend UNC Medical School.
Ryan Triche ’13 was inducted into the Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Honors Fraternity and received a FLAS Fellowship for Swahili.
Linden Wait ’14 was awarded a C.V. Starr grant to travel to Amman, Jordan this summer to work with the Families Development Association, a community based organization devoted to women’s economic empowerment through education and outreach. Wait will be teaching English to young women aged 13-18, and helping implement community outreach workshops with a team of four other UNC students.
Allie Weller ’12 received the Camoes Prize for Portuguese.
Leslie Willis ’12 was a Buckley Public Service scholar. She has also received a Fulbright scholarship to teach English in Malaysia after graduation.
Ariel Wyman ’12 received a SURF grant to travel o Cairo this summer for a photography project on youth street art since the revolution.
PHI BETA KAPPA
Fourteen of our students were admitted to the most prestigious honors society in the country, Phi Beta Kappa. Congratulations!
- Chelsea Christina Banister
- Georgia Wood Cavanaugh
- Jiakun Ding
- Kathleen Ellison
- Mattis Hennings
- Emily Jordan Jacobson
- Siddarth Shashi Nagaraj
- Kyle Douglas Olson
- Brendan Thomas Payne
- Chelsea Phipps
- Anne Kathryn Ruff
- Jacqlyn A. Waddell
- Katherine Lynn Wikrent
- Leslie A. Willis
STUDY ABROAD AWARDS
PHILLIPS AMBASSADORS
Three of our students were selected as Phillips Ambassadors in the summer and Fall of 2011. The Phillips Ambassadors scholarship offers undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the unique opportunity to study abroad in Asia.
The award winners were:
Camila Rodriguez from Leland North Carolina; UNC Semester in China
Aja Kennedy from Charlotte North Carolina; CET Beijing Summer
Burcu Bozkurt from Istanbul, Turkey; Burch Field Research Seminar in Vietnam
BOYATT AWARD
The Michael L. and Matthew L. Boyatt Award Fund generously provides scholarships for study abroad and is administered by the Study Abroad Office in consultation with the curriculum in Global Studies. This year, awards were presented to the following majors:
Jessica DelMonaco: Sevilla
Thomas Jewett: ACTR Moscow Summer
Jee Hwae Kim: UNC Xiamen
Sarah Elbohy: Cape Town, South Africa
Emily Whitfield: UNC-EP: Uruguay Universidad Montevideo
The Boyatt scholars for the upcoming term have been selected, and include:
Alison Evarts
Alison Evarts will participate in the Honors Semester in Cape Town program in South Africa for the fall semester. A sophomore from Durham, she is pursuing a double major in global studies and dramatic art. She selected the Honors program because it combines her interests in theatre and African studies, and also because it provides the opportunity to intern in theatre. She is excited to work for a leading theatre in political activism, and to take classes focused on South African writers and politics, to explore the role of the arts in the political and social system of the country. After graduation, she hopes to both act professionally and teach theatre at the university level, and she believes that her semester in Cape Town will provide her valuable experience.
Chloe Kizer
Chloe Kizer will be an exchange student for the 2012-13 academic year at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. A junior from Chapel Hill, she is pursuing a double major in history and communication studies. She has never been outside of the U.S. and is excited to live in another country and explore another culture. She chose to study in Edinburgh because of the university’s strong centers in Scottish studies and in medieval and renaissance studies. She is especially interested to explore the ties between Scottish culture and Southern identity. While in Scotland, she hopes to make contacts within the research and academic communities that she can utilize for her career. She plans to attend graduate school, possibly in Scotland, to become a professor of medieval history.
Eric Walston
Eric Walston will be an exchange student for the 2012-13 academic year at Mansfield College in Oxford University. A sophomore from Snow Hill, NC, he is pursuing a double major in history and classics. He has only been to Canada outside the U.S. and wants to live in another country for a year to immerse himself in another culture. He is excited to challenge himself with Oxford’s rigorous tutorial system and take advantage of the university’s archival holdings to perform research for his senior honors thesis. Since he hopes to pursue graduate studies in modern British history and become a professor, his year at Oxford will provide him with valuable knowledge of his field, familiarity with the British educational system, and professional contacts for his future studies.
LAURA RICHARDS STUDY ABROAD SCHOLARSHIP
The Study Abroad office, in consultation with the curriculum in Global Studies, selects a global studies major to receive the Laura Richards Study Abroad scholarship each year. This year’s recipient is Miriam Celnarova. Miriam will be an exchange student for the 2012-13 academic year at Sciences Po (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris) in Paris, France. A sophomore from Tomasov, Slovakia, she is pursuing a double major in global studies and sociology. In addition to the opportunity to improve her French fluency, she decided to study at Sciences Po because of the university’s strong programs in sociology and international relations, and the diverse coursework that will add a European perspective to her knowledge of the subjects. She is also interested in the possibility of engaging in social research. Miriam is considering a career in international development, focused on monitoring policy implementation through research, and she knows that she will gain valuable research experience and a solid foundation in social science theories and statistical models during her year abroad.
RESEARCH
Three of our students presented research at the Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research.
James Ding presented his thesis research “Watts, Water, Wireless: The benefits and deficiencies of “tech waves” in rural India.” His research was supervised by Dr. Nikhil Kaza. For more information on his research, visit our 2012 Honors Thesis Graduates page.
Siddarth Nagaraj presented his thesis research “Primary Health Centres in Urban India: Selection and Satisfaction.” His research was supervised by Dr. Sara Smith. For more information on his research, visit our 2012 Honors Thesis Graduates page.
Maya Mahin presented her thesis research “Modifying SOcial Assistance Programs for especially vulnerable groups.” Her research was supervised by Dr. Heidi Reynolds. For more information on her research, visit our 2012 Honors Thesis Graduates page.
McKay Roozen presented her thesis research “Tibetan Women’s NGO’s at the Nexus of Social Change,” advised by Dr. Lauren Leve. For more information on her research, visit our 2012 Honors Thesis Graduates page.
Benjamin Rosado presented his thesis “Examining Structural Violence in Guatemala through the Conceptualizations of Depressive Symptoms.” His research was supervised by Dr. Sue Estroff. For more information on his research, visit our 2012 Honors Thesis Graduates page.
Kristen Sawyer presented “The Rhetoric of Inspiration: Teaching Tools to Encourage Passion.” Her study was supervised by Dr. Jordynn Jack.
Sawyer analyzes through the lens of rhetoric the teaching strategies of the protagonists in two popular films, Mona Lisa Smile and The Dead Poet’s Society, as well as a handful of TED talks delivered by current teachers, to create a rubric that outlines the ways in which a teacher is most successful at inspiring his/her students. These teachers, both in film and real life, tap into the passion of their students in a way that can, and should, be replicated among future generations of teachers. In this age, our country barrels towards continuing conflicts in the realm of education, and there has never been a more poignant time for studies about the effect of great teachers, who are armed with the right tools, and what lessons students most need for discovering their own passion and satisfaction. This multi-media research ultimately breaks down how teachers can be the most effective and the most inspirational; the findings point heavily towards the rhetorical practices of the teachers as well as the relentless encouragement of curiosity and pursuit of passion.
Elise Stephenson presented her thesis research “Eating behavior in children’s programming: a potential contributor to childhood obesity.” Her research was supervised by James Ferguson. For more information on her research, visit our 2012 Honors Thesis Graduates page.