Juliet Freudman, Graduate Fellow

Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2019

Juliet Freudman will receive a B.S. in biomedical engineering in June and will pursue a M.S. in material science and engineering. Her interests are in diagnostics, biotechnology, and global health. She has had experience working on a healthcare technical study in South Africa, and working with doctors and engineers in a Motion Analysis laboratory in New York. In addition, Juliet was awarded the Simpson-Querrey Fellowship to work at the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics, where she has been a co-author of two published articles. She is also the director of Camp Kesem at Northwestern, which organizes summer camp for 220 children whose lives are affected by a parent’s cancer.

Jennifer Lackey, Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient

Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2020

From The Office of the Provost

"Jennifer Lackey, Professor of Philosophy, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

“Inspiring students to examine the crisis of mass incarceration in the U.S. through a philosophical lens”

Lackey will design a course that brings together Northwestern undergraduates and incarcerated students enrolled in the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) to study the philosophy of punishment and incarceration.

The course will enable students to examine, through a philosophical lens, the causes and consequences of the incarceration crisis in the United States, which is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of its prisoners. Students will investigate the racial and socioeconomic roots of the punitive approach the U.S. has taken to criminal justice, imposing lengthy prison sentences and harsh conditions of confinement, and providing very few educational, vocational or recreational programs. Evanston-based students will travel weekly to Stateville Correctional Center to attend class with NPEP students. Together the students will study and analyze competing theories of punishment, explore connections among incarceration, race, and poverty, and collaborate to develop theoretical and practical approaches to these issues. Because the course will explore issues that NPEP students face every day, they will be able to provide a valuable firsthand perspective and contribute to a meaningful learning experience for their Evanston-based classmates.

Lackey is the founder and director of NPEP, the only degree-granting program in the state to provide a liberal arts curriculum to incarcerated students. NPEP is a collaboration between Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies and Oakton Community College."

Jennifer Lackey, Sepehr Vakil, and Sarah Van Wart have been named the 2020 recipients of The Alumnae of Northwestern University’s Award for Curriculum Innovation for helping create courses for undergraduate students. 

1/2020

Sarah Van Wart, Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient

Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2020

Sarah Van Wart, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, McCormick School of Engineering

“Encouraging students to critically engage with contemporary ethical challenges in computing”

Sepehr Vakil and Van Wart will develop an ethics course for undergraduate Computer Science majors. This course will provide students with the opportunity to consider the social implications of computing technologies, and the far-reaching, unintended consequences these systems might have.

The goal of this course will be to provoke and inspire students to critically engage with contemporary ethical challenges in computing. Students will analyze case studies of current and enduring socio-technical dilemmas such as bias in algorithms, surveillance technologies, applications of facial recognition technologies, privacy breaches, etc. In addition, students will use real-world datasets to examine various social values within algorithms, computational techniques, and design decisions. Through these experiences, students will learn to recognize the ethics built into the various technologies they use and understand the responsibility of software engineers to act in the interest of all those affected by their products. 

Van Wart has experience working as a software developer and designer, with a focus on collaborative urban and regional planning systems research. Her research explores approaches to broadening participation in computing that involve creative production and working with real-world data sets.

Sarah's research partner, Sepehr Vakil is in the School of Education and Social Policy.  Click on this link to read the announcement of the award from SESP's news.  SESP'S announcement of The Alumnae's award.

Jennifer Lackey, Sepehr Vakil, and Sarah Van Wart have been named the 2020 recipients of The Alumnae of Northwestern University’s Award for Curriculum Innovation for helping create courses for undergraduate students.

Eileen Chen, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2017

Eileen Chen, WCAS '19, neuroscience, is from Willoughby, Ohio, and is interested in neuroscience and how the functioning of the brain impacts mental health.  She has done medical research for the past 5 years at Case Western Reserve University and has a passion for her STEM studies and looks forward to a career improving the lives of others. She has strong interpersonal and communication skills and a commitment to mentoring others.

Braden Cronin, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2019

Braden Cronin (WCAS) ’21, from Naperville, Ill., is studying global health and neuroscience. She began Northwestern on a Posner Fellowship and was accepted to present at a biomedical conference for minority students. She was awarded the Weinberg Travel Grant, the Central Florida Marine Corps Scholarship, as well as the Greer Scholarship. Her goal is to go into international health, specifically global healthcare. She is committed to understanding both the historical aspect of public health as well as the science behind the medicine. Because of her experience as a biracial student, she deeply values diversity and inclusion. She is active with MakerGirl to combat stereotypes against woman and minorities.

Kayla Carter, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2018

Kayla Carter, McC, chemical engineering, from Lake Oswego, Oregon, is a prior STEM Scholar for 2017-2018. Further, she won the D. Mickelson Engineering Scholarship and the 2017 Summer Undergraduate Research Grant. She describes a devastating amount of adversity that she has overcome with resilience, strength and hope. She is committed to pursuing the area of synthetic biology and nanobiotechnological engineering research in graduate school. She also plans to advocate for women and minorities in STEM.

Kayla Carter, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2017

Kayla Carter, McC '20, chemical engineering, is from Lake Oswego, Oregon, and is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in bionanotechnolgy.  As an undergraduate she has been involved in STEM outreach programs for underrepresented groups and hopes to pursue a career teaching in the STEM fields.  She is described as passionate and dedicated about her work, and a strong member of the research team.

2018 NOTE: Kayla received one of The Alumnae's STEM Scholarships for 2018-19 also.

Alexander Ortiz, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2017

Alexander Ortiz, WCAS '19, mathematics, is from Santa Fe New Mexico, and this is the second year he has been granted an Alumnae STEM Scholarship.   He has earned many honors in mathematics, is a Teaching Assistant, and aspires to go on to earn a Ph.D. and to be a professor of mathematics at a research university.  He has been recognized for his work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and wants to mentor other first-generation students in academia.

Nolan Robinson, STEM Scholar

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2019

Nolan Robinson, School of Communications (C), from Evanston, Ill., is studying theatre and computer science. He was named a Robert M. Cumnock Scholar in his first year at Northwestern. In addition, he was on the Dean’s List, was Keynote Speaker for the Evanston MLK day celebration 2018, won the NorthShore Branch NAACP 2017 Community Service Award, and serves on the Dean of Communication’s Advisory Council. Nolan defines himself as an artist and a scientist and aspires to join the two fields to discover what both artistic and scientific creation can bring to the world. He has faced financial issues, is a first generation college student, and feels he has been challenged because he is a black man. Nonetheless, he has actively sought opportunities for himself to succeed.