August 21, 2009
Steinbrecher Fellowships 09-10
Eleven Clark University undergraduates are using Steinbrecher Fellowships to support creative research and community service projects this summer and throughout the 2009-2010 academic year.
This year's Steinbrecher Fellows are:
Mikal Brotnov is a senior from Kamiah, Idaho. Brotnov, a history major, will conduct archival research on the Nez Perce Nation at the National Archives and Record Administration in Seattle, Washington. He will also travel to a powwow in Kamiah, Idaho, to photograph the ritual celebration of the Nimiipuu, and he will create a photographic essay to help preserve their cultural traditions.
Maeve Hogan is a sophomore from Clifton Springs, N.Y. Hogan is spending six weeks working on an archeological research project on the south coast of Turkey as part of a team investigating the Antiocheia ad Cragum, an ancient Roman city. She is working on a team led by Clark Art History Professor Rhys Townsend that is reconstructing a temple from remnants found on the site. Hogan majors in art history and studio art.
Trista Myers is a junior from South Berwick, Me. Myers is in Bath, England, working with a company that develops new ways for Web companies to interact with their customers "with creativity and integrity." She is using new web technologies and platforms to organize meet-ups, tweet-ups, blogging, and media partnerships. Myers majors in sociology.
Colin Peacock is a sophomore from Tucson, Ariz., who majors in environmental science. Peacock is researching climate change and its effects on the food sources of grizzly bears in the highest, coldest, and most remote place in the continental U.S.--the Wind Rivers Mountain Range, in central western Wyoming. He is creating GIS maps of pine beetle deforestation and is hiking trails and taking photographs to capture where the infestation is occurring, as it is a threat to the survival of grizzly bears. Peacock's research and maps will be used by the National Resource Defense Council and the U.S. Forest Service Pine Beetle team. He is also researching the effects of climate change on pika colonies (rodents) and is doing conservation work with Native Americans who live in the Wind Rivers Indian Reservation.
Anna Zonderman, a junior from Orange, Conn., an international development and social change major, is working with other researchers in New Haven, Conn., examining the social effects of asthma on inner-city teens. Zonderman interviewed teens with asthma at a school-based health center and taught them how to use a PhotoVoice camera to create "stories" they can share with others about how the disease affects their lives.
Tara Devaraj, Jennifer Timmreck, and Pauline Wu, three juniors who major in biochemistry and molecular biology, traveled to Namibia to work on an education project for youth aimed at promoting health awareness about diseases and the prevention of diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS. The students have been working with children at two secondary schools in the Oshikoto region of Namibia. Devaraj is from Bangalore, India; Timmreck is from Brunswick, Me.; and Wu is from Honolulu.
Shohini Banerjee, a sophomore from Koljata, India; Kimberly Burrowes, a sophomore from St. Andrew, Jamaica; and Rebecca Zilberstein, a sophomore from Miami; worked in Malawi at the Queen Elizabeth Centre Hospital, the Home of Hope Orphanage, and the Consol Homes Orphan Care Centre with two nonprofit organizations, the Daisy Eye Cancer Fund and Raising Malawi. The students set up "Child Life" services for children with serious illnesses to help them cope with, and prepare for, medical procedures through informal educational and recreational activities. Banerjee majors in international development, Burrowes majors in geography, and Zilberstein majors in sociology.
Steinbrecher fellowships encourage and support Clark undergraduates in their pursuit of original ideas, creative research, and community service projects. The Fellowship Program, established in 2006 in memory of David C. Steinbrecher, class of '81, by his parents, Phyllis and Stephen Steinbrecher, class of '55, is funded by generous gifts from them and from other family members and friends of David. It is directed by Professor Sharon Krefetz, former Dean of the College and chair of Clark's Department of Government and International Relations.
"The competition for this year's fellowships was more intense than ever. Nearly every applicant proposed an interesting, well-conceived project that, if selected for funding, they would have pursued with tremendous enthusiasm. The projects that received awards were truly exceptional in their originality and showed great potential for making a significant contribution to existing research or to the quality of life of the individuals involved.
"The Steinbrecher Fellowship Program enables our students to pursue their passions and to engage in innovative research or much-appreciated community service. I am enormously grateful to the Steinbrecher family for making this possible," said Krefetz.