Wheaton students win national honors

Seven Wheaton students have won competitive national awards so far this spring, including five Fulbright Scholarships, a Harry S. Truman Fellowship, and a Morris K. Udall Scholarship.

Seniors Sabrina Denault, Emily Hyde, Megan Luce, Kirsten Stajich and 2002 graduate Anna Venishnick have earned Fulbright Scholarships to work and study abroad. Junior Adar Cohen is one of 76 U.S. college students to win the Truman Scholarship in public service, while sophomore Jared Duval has won a Udall Scholarship, awarded to outstanding undergraduate students with an interest in environmental policy.

In just over a decade, Wheaton students have won 34 prestigious national scholarships for their academic accomplishments, including the Rhodes, British Marshall, Goldwater, Beinecke, 18 Fulbrights, 5 Rotary Ambassadorial scholarships, 3 Trumans, 2 Udalls and 2 James Madison Fellowships.

%%Adar Cohen%%
A resident of Peterborough, N.H., Adar Cohen has earned a 2003 Harry S. Truman Fellowship, a $30,000 merit-based grant awarded to undergraduate students to support graduate work in preparation for careers in public service. At Wheaton, Cohen has designed an independent major in Conflict Resolution, which includes course work in anthropology, political science, religion and history. Last summer, Cohen traveled to the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, a tiny Buddhist state between Tibet and India. Through funding provided by Wheaton's Davis International Fellows program, he assisted two Wheaton professors with a teaching fellowship and curriculum development project at Sherubtse College, Bhutan's only liberal arts institution.

Cohen is considering various post-graduate study programs, including those of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) at George Mason University, the Gandhi Institute, the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy, and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. After his 2004 graduation from Wheaton and before pursuing his Truman-funded graduate work, he plans a period of work and study abroad.

%%Sabrina Denault%%
A Balfour Scholar from Fairhaven, Mass., Sabrina Denault plans to teach the English language and American culture at a school in France. Denault spent her junior year in France, studying at the University of Tours Francois Rabelais. At Wheaton, she serves as an academic mentor and a French tutor. She also sings with the Wheaton Chorale and plays piano.

Denault also has gained experience as a teacher. This past summer, she interned at the Community Prepatory School in Providence, R.I. For Denault, the Fulbright award offers the opportunity to immerse herself in French language and culture, and gain teaching experience, before she enrolls in graduate study. Her ultimate goal is to teach French culture and history at the college level.

%%Emily Hyde%%
English major Hyde, a resident of New London, Conn., will spend 13 months teaching English in a Korean school with the support of her Fulbright award. Hyde honed her language teaching skills as head writing tutor this year in Wheaton's writing center, often working with students for whom English is a second language. As an education minor, she is currently student teaching fifth grade at the Henri A. Yelle Elementary School in Norton.

After her junior year abroad at the University of Western Australia, Hyde spent two months traveling through Australasia--Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea--where she met many Asian students and developed a keen interest in Asian cultures. She looks forward to exploring one of them in depth. "I feel that the best way to learn about Korean culture, education, and society is to fully immerse myself in it," Hyde said.

During her Fulbright year, Hyde will also pursue an independent research project centered on the concept of "whiteness" and how it plays out in a racially homogeneous country such as Korea. Through interviews, classroom observations and analysis of the curriculum, she will examine the influences of white, Western culture and institutions upon Korean society and culture.

%%Megan Luce%%
An English literature major from Burlington, Vermont, Megan Luce will teach in an elementary or junior high school in Taiwan with the support of her Fulbright. Having a strong interest in politics, Luce was drawn to Taiwan because of its recent shift in government--the first in more than 50 years--and concurrent dedication to human rights.

"It is a very interesting time in Taiwanese history and ... therefore a very enriching time to live in Taiwan," said Luce, whose career interests lie in alternative education. "I feel that my placement as a teacher will allow me to understand the culture and politics and bring back knowledge and understanding that I can share with future students in the United States."

%%Kirsten Stajich%%
A senior from Hillsborough, North Carolina, Kirsten Stajich will travel to the Orléans/Tour region of France on a teaching assistantship through the French Ministry of Education. She will teach English to primary school children.

A double major in English and French, Stajich came to Wheaton as a Balfour Scholar and has wide-ranging international experience. She won the Mandell award from the Phi Beta Kappa chapter of Massachusetts to study abroad in France during her junior year. She also was selected to travel to Istanbul, Turkey, for Wheaton's Robert College Program, teaching English to Turkish children at a summer camp. Finally, Stajich won a Davis International Fellows award to intern at the World Student Christian Federation in Geneva, Switzerland, this past summer.

A student with wide-ranging interests, Stajich is a member of the Wheaton College Dance Company, a managing editor of the Wheaton Wire, a French tutor, a senior intern in the Admissions office and a peer advisor in the Center for Global Education.

%%Anna Venishnick%%
A 2002 graduate of Wheaton, Anna Venishnick of Simsbury, Conn., plans to teach the English language and American culture to German high school students. Venishnick spent her junior year at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Last year, she collaborated with another student to produce a documentary, "Berlin: City in Progress," as part of her senior honors thesis.

After graduation from Wheaton, Venishnick has spent time teaching English to elementary school children in China, and has been working as a tutor. Following her Fulbright work, Venishnick plans to pursue graduate work in education and become a German high school teacher.

%%Jared Duval%%
Winning a Morris K. Udall Scholarship this year is Jared Duval, from Bethel, Vermont. Named in tribute to the late Congressman Morris King Udall of Arizona, the scholarship program recognizes undergraduate students who share Udall's mission of environmental preservation. A political science and economics major, Duval has already distinguished himself in this area. As a high school senior in New Hampshire, he led Students for a Sustainable Future, a local activist group that contributed to the defeat of a proposed supermarket development on 12 acres of wetland and forest. He now serves on the executive committee of the Sierra Student Coalition, the largest student environmental organization in the U.S.

Duval's $5,000 Udall scholarship will support his studies at Wheaton, which he hopes will lead him toward a public policy career focusing on renewable energy and other environmental issues. Ultimately, he would like to serve the state of Vermont as a United States congressman or senator.