Mary Elizabeth Holden, Graduate Fellow
Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2010
Master of Medical Science, Physician Assistants Program, Feinberg School of Medicine, 2012 Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, 2008
As an undergraduate, Mary Beth spent Spring Quarter 2007 in South Africa through the Global Healthcare Technologies Study Abroad Program. There she reported "encountering the stark disparities between regional healthcare resources . . . patients being treated in a modern hospital and those in a crowded free clinic.” Working with healthcare providers and mothers, she designed a Premature Infant Apnea Monitor that was awarded the Best BME Design Project. That summer as an intern at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, she helped develop a robotic device to assist stroke patients in regaining upper extremity mobility. After graduation, Mary Beth worked as a Clinical Research Associate at a pharmaceutical advertising agency and volunteered at LaRabida Children’s Hospital, Chicago, IL. Inspired by the children being treated there, Mary Beth decided to pursue a career as a physician’s assistant.
Colby Witherup, Graduate Fellow
Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2009
Masters Program in Plant Biology & Conservation, 2011 Bachelor of Arts in Conservation Policies and Methods, 2008
Having worked 5 years at farms in the U.S. and England, Colby discovered a “passion for sustainable agriculture” that led to her creating an ad hoc major in Conservation Policy and Methods. Before beginning her Masters Program, she worked as a field assistant at the Chicago Botanic Garden and ran educational environmental programs for children through the Chicago Park District. Along with being a student, she was a Research Assistant, in the Genetics Lab, at the Botanic Garden, and developed skills in DNA technology for her research in Bangladesh to conserve a native food crop.
Paula Bernhardt
Alumnae Scholarship Recipient, 2011
The Alumnae Scholarship is a three year award, which is funded by an endowment, and goes to a freshman woman.
Esha Khurana
Senior Woman's Award for Volunteer Service Recipient, 2012
Timi Chu
Senior Woman's Award for Volunteer Service Recipient, 2013
Jaime Griesgraber, Graduate Fellow
Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2009
Master of Business Administration, Kellogg School of Management, 2011 Bachelor of Science, Medill School of Journalism, 2006
Described by her professor as “unique among Kellogg students,” Jaime has the “passion and commitment to forgo a lucrative business career” and pursue a career in public education. She Interned as a reporter in South Africa, where she met a group of 12 year-olds who couldn’t read their own names, and later worked as a director at Teach for America. After she covered a conference on Innovating Social Change, she knew her experience in business could be applied to social issues.
Lauren Schlesinger, Graduate Fellow
Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2009
Master of Science in Secondary Education, English Literature, 2010 Bachelor of Arts in English Writing (Poetry Concentration), 2009
Committed to becoming an English teacher while continuing to publish poetry, Lauren was honored in 2009 by the American Academy of Poets and recognized by her writing professor as one of the “most gifted writers encountered in a decade of teaching,” After graduating Cum Laude with Departmental Honors in Writing, she has received “very high praise” for her graduate work to date. She attributes her love of literature and passion for poetry to her AP English teacher.<p>
Update: January, 2019, on Facebook
"Lauren Elizabeth Schlesinger recommends The Alumnae of Northwestern University. January 19 at 12:47 PM
The Alumnae of Northwestern serves the larger community of the university through funding and educational programing for undergraduates, graduates, and the public. Although many may not know much about this fierce group of women, they have made an immense impact-especially within the lives of individual scholars. Ten years ago, I received the Alumnae Graduate fellowship, and it changed the course of my life because I could then complete the MSEd program and pursue my goal of becoming a high school English teacher. Thank you so much for helping women pursue advanced degrees and for providing affordable classes to local adults. Thank you for enriching generations of Wildcats!"
Francesca Tataranni
Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2015
Ancient Rome in Chicago
In her course, Tataranni will teach 21st-century students about the continuing influence of ancient Rome in modern America, particularly in Chicago.
Students will work on individual projects and present their research in the form of a video essay. Using software designed by Northwestern’s Knight News Innovation Laboratory, the entire class will then work jointly to design a virtual walking tour of all the places in the city where “memories” of ancient Rome appear.
“We see or walk by neoclassical buildings and are exposed to a variety of uses of classical imagery almost every day, which we completely take for granted,” Tataranni said. “Specifically, the focus of the class will be Chicago, the quintessential modern American city, and the way it has used classical antiquity, in particular Roman culture, to assert its own modernity.”
Expressing her gratitude for the award, Tataranni said, “This award has enhanced the potential of my class immensely.”
The name of this award was changed in 2019 from Curriculum Development Award to Curriculum Innovation Award.
Susie Phillips (right)
Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2015
Thought Experiments: An Exploration of Knowing Through Neuroscience and the Humanities
Susie Phillips, associate professor of English, and Indira Raman, professor of neurobiology, will develop a course to understand the human experience by merging neuroscientific, literary and artistic perspectives -- disciplines generally thought to be at opposite ends of the academic spectrum.
The goal of the course is to teach students how to think with and through very different disciplines, learning how to bridge the gap between subjects that would appear to speak different languages.
“Until a couple of centuries ago, scholars made no distinction between science and literature or science and art,” Phillips said. “Indira and I wondered what it would be like to revive this older paradigm and reintegrate these supposedly disparate ways of thinking about thinking into a single classroom. We’re absolutely thrilled that this award will enable us to do just that.”
Reading works like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” alongside scientific writing on neurophysiology, neuropyschiatric disorders and animal behavior, students will explore different perspectives on what constitutes thought, what free will is and isn’t, and what tools we have for making sense of some of the most fundamental aspects of human experience -- emotions, memory, perception, ethics and knowledge.
“We laid down a challenge for ourselves in setting the goal of creating a multidisciplinary course -- one that incorporates totally distinct disciplines, methods and perspectives, rather than one that spans the interface between related disciplines,” Raman said. “It is a pleasure to know that those who reviewed the application are interested in that challenge and that they were willing to validate it.”
The name of this award was changed in 2019 from Curriculum Development Award to Curriculum Innovation Award.
Alexandra Woodhouse
STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2014
Allie Woodhouse, McC, is from Denton, MD. Her major is Industrial Engineering, and she will be a sophomore in 2014-2015. She placed 2nd in the Deloitte undergraduate consulting case competition, and her long term goal is to be in the field of consulting.
2015 NOTE: Allie received one of The Alumnae's STEM Scholarships for 2015-16 also.