Student Newspaper Wins Top Awards

The Willamette University student newspaper, the Collegian, won the prestigious award for General Excellence in the Collegiate Newspaper Contest. The competition was sponsored by the Oregon Newspaper Publishing Association.

The Collegian also won awards in the following categories:

Best Writing, Tatiana Mac
“NY Times’ assoc. editor reveals secrets, protects civil liberties”
“Explore the unexpected”
“Blind grading ensures objectivity”
http://www.willamettecollegian.com/?s=tatiana+mac&submit=search

Best News Story, Lauren Gold
“Students mourn sudden death of Kaneko cook”
http://www.willamettecollegian.com/2007/12/05/students-mourn-sudden-death-of-kaneko-cook/

Best Editorial, Collegian Editorial Board
“The cost of education”
http://www.willamettecollegian.com/2008/01/23/the-cost-of-education/

Best Columnist, Tom Ackerman
Opinions section
http://www.willamettecollegian.com/?s=tom+ackerman&submit=search

Best Sports Photo, Stephen Scott
Photo of Willamette Rugby Club

Best Cartooning, Patrick Willgohs

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Zerzan Selected for Prestigious NCAA Award

Sarah Zerzan, a runner on the Willamette University cross country and track and field teams, is one of the just eight senior student-athletes from the NCAA’s overall membership to be selected to receive the NCAA Today’s Top VIII Award for 2007.

Zerzan and seven other athletes were selected for the prestigious award for their athletic and academic achievements, plus character and leadership. The awards will be presented Jan. 13 at the NCAA Honors Celebration in Nashville, Tenn., as part of the annual NCAA Convention.

Zerzan (San Carlos, Calif./Notre Dame High School) is part of an exceptional group of individuals selected for the award. Previous winners include Peyton Manning (football, University of Tennessee, 1998), David Robinson (men’s basketball, U.S. Naval Academy, 1988), Cheryl Miller (women’s basketball, University of Southern California, 1987), Steve Young (football, Brigham Young University, 1984) and John Elway (football, Stanford University, 1983).

Zerzan won back-to-back NCAA Division III individual national championships in cross country in 2006 and 2007. She became only the third athlete to repeat as the women’s champion in the 27-year history of the NCAA Division III National Championships. She helped Willamette place ninth in the team standings at the 2007 NCAA National Championships, while earning All-America honors for the third consecutive season.

In track and field, she took second place in the women’s 5,000-meter run at the 2007 NCAA Division III National Championships. She was 11th in the 5,000-meter run at the 2006 National Championships. Last spring, she won the Northwest Conference title in the 1,500-meter run, helping Willamette claim the team title.

Zerzan was named NCAA Division III National Female Athlete of the Year in cross country in 2006 and 2007. She recently was selected as the nominee from cross country for the 2007-08 NCAA Division III Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year Award. Zerzan also was the nominee from cross country for the Woman Athlete of the Year Award in 2006-07. Just 11 student-athletes are chosen as nominees each academic year.

Zerzan has a 3.93 cumulative grade point average and is majoring in biochemistry. She plans to attend medical school next year. In the summer of 2006, she studied abroad in Costa Rica, where she helped conduct ethnobiology field research through interviews with Costa Rican indigenous people.

She is a member of the steering committee for Willamette’s chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign. She has volunteered at Waldo Middle School in the Russian-English bilingual mentorship program, she has served as a Spanish-English mentor at Richmond Elementary School, and she is member of the Chemistry Club.

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Willamette Students Win Ethics Debate Competition

A team of students from Willamette University won the second annual Oregon Independent College Foundation Ethics Bowl competition held March 9–10 at Reed College in Portland.

The Ethics Bowl brings together student teams from the 10 private liberal arts colleges in Oregon to debate real-world ethics cases. Teams of three to five students competed in head-to-head matches judged by panels of distinguished leaders from across Oregon and Washington.

The students grappled with real-world ethical questions that challenged their thinking on issues such as the war in Iraq, ship breaking and the environment, journalist confidentiality, Internet privacy and reproductive rights. The Willamette team won all five matches and compiled a record score of 530 out of 600 possible points.

Members of the Willamette team are MaryAnn Almeida, a sophomore politics and Spanish major from Spokane, Wash.; Brett Dahlberg, a freshman undeclared major from Bremerton, Wash.; Elizabeth Humphrey, a senior history major from Dallas, Ore.; Jade Olson, a sophomore rhetoric and media studies major from Hillsboro, Ore.; and Nic Robinson, a sophomore politics major from Norman, Okla.

The team will receive a trophy and plaque for the university and each student will receive a $1,000 cash award and individual plaque.

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Top Seniors Recognized

Willamette University’s top seniors were recognized April 13 at the annual Campus Life Honors and Awards Banquet held in Cat Cavern. The students, nominated by staff, faculty and their fellow students, were selected for the various awards by the Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU) Honors and Awards Committee.

“These were tough decisions,” says ASWU Vice President for Administration and ASWU President Elect, Tyler L. Reich, who helped review the students’ resumes and make the award selections. “We only have a limited number of awards and all the nominated seniors were very well qualified.”

Award presenters included CLA Dean Carol Long, Associate CLA Dean David Douglas and Assistant to the Dean of Campus Life David Rigsby. The awards included:

Senior Keys – Presented to the top ten outstanding members of the senior class who have contributed meritorious “Service to the Associated Students.” A committee of undergraduates selects these seniors based on their time and effort spent in the name of Willamette University, their diversity of activity and their impact on other students.

Recipients:

Stephenne Harding
Kate Harrie
Jenn Heidt
Bracken Killpack
Linda Lazo
Thomas McCloskey
Amber Simonton
Venessa Terzaghi
Marc Therrien
Stephanie Vandehey

Senior Certificate – Presented to the 20 outstanding members of the senior class who have contributed meritorious “Service to the Associated Students.” A committee of undergraduates selects these seniors based on their time and effort spent in the name of Willamette University, their diversity of activity and their impact on other students.

Recipients:

Curtis Bell
Kevin Boots
Annie Brown
Paul Crisalli
Beth Davidson
Kat Eum
Apryl Ferris
Steph Hartford
Aaron Hasenkamp
Eric Lam
Karlie Lewis
Nicole Lindquist
Nicole Lucas
Lesley Meyer
Beth Phillips
Duncan Robertson
Mike Robinson
Kelsey Soma
Sarah Sprinkle
Rianne Stephens

Daniel H. Schulze Award – This award was created in 1965 in honor and recognition of Daniel Schulze, Professor of History and German and Dean of Men. The Schulze Award is given to a member of the senior class who has put out the extra effort this year and in previous years for the class to function properly and is considered “The Best Friend of the Class as a Whole.”

Recipients:
Bethany Davidson
Bracken Killpack

Frank Meyer Student Life Award – This award was renamed in 1994 to honor the 27 years of service provided by former Vice President for Student Affairs, Frank Meyer. It is presented to a student for outstanding leadership and contribution to student life.

Recipient:

Kate Harrie

Jessie E. West Award – Named in honor of Jessie E. West ’14, Willamette’s first female student body president, this award is presented to two students for “outstanding leadership and contribution to the student body.”

Recipients:

Stephenne Harding
Jennifer Heidt
Bracken Killpack

Colonel Percy Willis Prize – In memory of Colonel Percy Willis (1885), a trust was established by Mrs. Willis, which provides a prize to the student “who, throughout the school year, has done the most good to fellow students and the University by deeds of kindness and general helpfulness, coupled with steadfast devotion to high ideals and upright character.”

Recipient:

Stephanie Vandehey

Albert Prize – Created by a bequest of Mr. Joseph H. Albert, this prize is awarded to the student who, having maintained good standing in scholarship during the year, has made the greatest progress toward the ideal in character, service and wholesome influence.

Recipient:
Apryl Ferris

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Willamette Tops in National Scholars

For the second consecutive year, Willamette University students have garnered five national scholarship awards, the only university on the West Coast to win a Fulbright Grant, a Truman Grant, a Udall Scholarship, a Watson Fellowship and a Kemper Scholarship.

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Willamette Students Win Prestigious National Awards

Six Willamette University students received top national awards – two Truman Scholarships, two Watson Fellowships, one Fulbright Grant and one Goldwater Scholarship. Willamette is the only university in the country to have two Trumans and two Watsons this year. Willamette’s closest competition is Williams (two Trumans, one Watson), Middlebury (one Truman, two Watsons), Carleton (three Watsons), Rice (three Watsons) and Harvard (three Trumans).

Juniors Jennifer Heidt, a politics and sociology major from Boise, Idaho, and Lesley Meyer, a politics major from Missoula, Mont., were selected as 2004 Harry S. Truman Scholars. The Truman Scholarship is a $26,000 merit-based federal grant awarded to college juniors, who plan to attend graduate or professional school in preparation for careers in government, the non-profit sector or elsewhere in public service. In the last five years, eight Willamette students have been awarded Truman Scholarships. Out of 67 colleges and universities, only eight, including Willamette, have two or more Truman Scholars this year.

Justin Brown and Ellen McGehee are among 50 college seniors nationwide to be awarded a 2004-05 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Watson Fellowships are one-year grants of $22,000 for travel and independent study outside the United States. The award marks the culmination of an application process that officially began in September, when nearly 1,000 students from 50 selective private liberal arts colleges and universities applied for their university’s nomination. Among the West Coast institutions, only Willamette and Pomona College have two Watson Fellows this year.

Senior politics major Alex Dukalskis has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to teach English in Korea. The Fulbright covers the cost of travel and provides a stipend of approximately $1,000 a month for 13 months. The Fulbright Program was created by Congress in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchange. Dukalskis, an award-winning member of Willamette’s forensics team, was also been accepted to the London School of Economics’ master’s program in Human Rights.

Natalie Muren, a sophomore chemistry major, was named a 2004 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. The two-year scholarship provides up $7,500 a year for tuition, books and room and board costs. A native of Keizer, Ore., Muren is one of 310 Goldwater Scholars selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,113 nominees.

For more information on what these talented students will be researching, visit Student Academic Grants and Awards.

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Spokane Resident Named Watson Fellow at Willamette

Garrett Tenold, son of Janet and Gregory Tenold of Spokane and a graduate of Ferris High School, has been selected as one of 60 Watson Fellows in the country for 2002-03. He is the first Watson Fellow named at Willamette University, Salem. He will graduate in May from Willamette where he is a math and physics major.

The Watson Fellowship provides a grant of $22,000 to each recipient. Nearly 1,000 students from 50 private liberal arts colleges and universities applied for the awards.

His project, "Renewable Energy Islands: Lessons from the Quest for 100%: Iceland, Denmark, Canary Islands and Vanuatu," will carry him to these four islands that are investing in and developing renewable energy sources. He will study how government, business, academia and the public approach the issue of renewable energy. Although several countries are looking at renewable energy--sun, wind, water, geothermal--Tenold chose islands because they have to import what fuel they use.

Tenold is also a 2001-2002 Presidential Senior Scholar, which is awarded to two outstanding Willamette juniors annually for research in their senior year. Scholars receive a semester's tuition and a stipend for summer research. For his senior project, Garrett constructed a sonoluminescence chamber to observe how sound waves convert to light energy.

The Thomas J. Watson Foundation inaugurated the Watson Fellowship in 1968 to give college graduates of unusual promise the freedom to engage in a year of independent study and travel abroad following their graduation. The program provides Fellows an opportunity for a focused and disciplined "wanderjahr" of their own devising.

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Willamette Student Receives National Science Foundation Research Fellowship

Willamette University senior biology major Briana Gross, a native of Boise, Idaho, has won a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Gross is only one of eight students attending Oregon universities who were awarded 2001 fellowships.

This fellowship provides three years of support with an approximate value of $27,000 per year. Over 900 fellowships in the sciences, mathematics and engineering are awarded nationwide each year.

Last year, she received a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship awarded to students with potential to make significant contributions to research in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. After graduation, Gross will attend graduate school at Indiana University in Bloomington and work towards a doctorate in plant evolutionary genetics.

While at Willamette University, Gross has participated in many research projects. She initiated a research project investigating the interspecific hybridization between two species of camas lily. The summer following her sophomore year, she entered Willamette's Science Collaborative Research Program, developing a protocol for testing gossypol analogs, most widely known as a male contraceptive which could lead to a "male pill."

Even with Gross' strong background in science, she is a talented musician. She plays the oboe for several performing ensembles and was responsible for organizing Willamette's Holiday Concert during her sophomore year.

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Willamette Student Receives Udall Scholarship

Willamette University student Evan Larson, a junior majoring in environmental sciences, has been awarded a Morris K. Udall Scholarship, which provides up to $5,000 to 75 undergraduates each year to study the environment and related fields.

A founding member of the Willamette chapter of Roots and Shoots, and a member of the Outdoors Club, Larson, of Milaca, Minn., plans to earn a master's degree in environmental education from the Audubon Expedition Institute. Last fall he volunteered with the Twenty-first Century Community Schoolhouse, a Salem charter school, teaching greater awareness of environmental issues. He is currently with the School for Field Studies in the British West Indies, researching sustainable harvest techniques for local fishermen.

A graduate of Milaca Public High School, Evan was captain of the football team and junior varsity wrestling captain. His home borders the 29,000 acre Rum River State Forest. With his family, Evan has worked with the Minnesota Forestry Service documenting poorly executed clear-cuts and helping create better environments for new forest growth.

This summer Evan will be co-teaching a forestry care-taking course with a Maine master guide, teaching loggers, foresters, and private landowners about environmentally friendly logging methods. He will also participate in the Science Collaborative Research Program, under the direction of Willamette Professor Karen Arabas, researching dendroecology and island biogeography.

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Two Willamette Students Named 2001 Truman Scholarship Recipients

The Truman Foundation has announced that Willamette University juniors Anna Carpenter and Russell Bither-Terry have been selected as a 2001 Truman Scholar, two of 75 juniors nationwide.

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation awards $30,000 merit-based scholarships to college juniors who intend to pursue careers in government or public service and plan to attend graduate or professional school to help prepare for their careers.

Anna Carpenter, a native of Mesquite, Nev., has been involved in the Willamette University Women's Center, in Students for Choice, in Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, as a domestic violence hotline worker for the Mid Valley Women's Crisis Services and as an abortion clinic escort.

Carpenter wants to address the unequal status of women in society, especially low-income women. She will apply for the 2002 Washington Summer Institute, offered to 40 Truman Scholars each year, where she would like to work in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Administration to Children and Families. Upon graduation, she plans to attend New York University School of Law. After working for a public interest law organization such as the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund, she hopes to run for elected office and work toward legislation that promotes gender equity. Ultimately, Carpenter would like to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Russell Bither-Terry, a junior majoring in politics, attended high school in Whitefish, Mont., and currently hails from Eagle River, Alaska.

Bither-Terry is co-chair of the Willamette Socialist Union (WSU) and a member of Willamette Students for Peace and Justice. He helped to organize voter registration activities and a campaign to encourage Willamette to adopt a "code of conduct" for manufacturers of University apparel. He encouraged the WSU to become involved in local politics, contributing to a policy document "An Agenda for a Livable Salem" now under review by the Salem City Council.

He has also taught citizenship classes for Mexican immigrants and served as an Oregon delegate to the National Green Party Convention in Denver last June. He contributes to the Collegian and the Willamette Community Press, and can be seen regularly playing his guitar during "open mic" night at the Willamette Bistro.

Bither-Terry intends to earn a doctorate in International Relations and Public Policy from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He hopes to work with Oxfam to advocate for impoverished peoples and facilitate third-world economic development

In the past three years, five Willamette students have received Truman scholarships. Willamette University was the only private institution named as a 2000 Truman Honor Institution.

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Three Willamette Students Make Final Round for Truman Scholarship

Willamette congratulates three students who are finalists in receiving the prestigious Truman Foundation Scholarship. Willamette joins Yale and Dartmouth as the only universities that nominated three or more students and had a 100% success rate in the choice of finalists.

The three Willamette finalists are:

• Anna Carpenter '02, a sociology major from Boulder City, Nev. She will travel to Phoenix, Az., to interview on March 5.
• Johnny Vong '02, a politics major from Upland, Calif. He is currently studying in Galway, Ireland and will interview in Oxford, England, on Feb. 26.
• Russell Bither-Terry '02, a politics major from Eagle River, Alaska. He will interview in Washington, D.C., on March 26, one day after returning from a spring break study trip to Cuba.

Recipients of the Truman Scholarship receive $30,000 for undergraduate and graduate study leading to careers in public service, along with leadership training and internship opportunities In 2000 the Truman Foundation recognized Willamette for fostering awareness of the Truman Scholarship competition on campus and encouraging students to consider careers in public service.

In the last three years Willamette has had ten Truman finalists going to regional interviews, the final round of competition.

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Eight Willamette Students Receive Gates Millennium Scholarship

Out of the 4,000 students chosen to receive the Gates Millennium Scholarship, eight were from Willamette University:

• Crystal Roberts, '04, an incoming freshman from Portland, OR.
• Jason Buffington, '04, an incoming freshman from Onalaska, WA.
• Diana Cedeno, '04, an incoming freshman from Anchorage, AK.
• Servando Osorio, '04 an incoming freshman from Reedsport, OR.
• Julidang K. Chue, '02, a junior from Tacoma, WA.
• Johnny Lake, '01, a senior from Salem, OR.
• Johnny Vong, '02, a junior from Upland, CA.
• Kinnarone Manipakone, '03, a sophomore from South Bend, WA.

More than 62,000 high-achieving students were nominated for the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program. The GMS provides merit-based scholarships that cover the remaining college costs minority students face after universities award financial aid packages.

To be eligible for nomination, students must:

• Have a minimum cumulative 3.3 g.p.a.
• Be African-American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian Pacific American or Hispanic citizens/permanent residents of the United States.
• Be accepted into or enrolled full-time in an accredited four-year undergraduate degree program or accepted or enrolled in a graduate degree program in mathematics, science, engineering, education or library science for the 2000-2001 academic year.
• Demonstrate leadership skills and community involvement.
• Show significant financial need.

The program, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, plans to induct 1,000 new scholars each year during the program’s 20-year span.

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