UW-Madison remembers student who died in car accident

University of Wisconsin–Madison junior Anna Shoemaker is being remembered as a student with a bright future in the field of international environmental policy.

Shoemaker, 20, of Hudson, Wis., died Thursday after an automobile accident near Ashland, Wis. Shoemaker was an organ donor and her family says her organs saved the lives of six people.

Shoemaker was preparing to study this semester in Venezuela. An obituary in the Hudson Star-Observer says she had planned to take the LSAT next year, and Tracey Holloway, associate professor in UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute and director of the Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, says she planned to write law school recommendations for Shoemaker.

Holloway says Shoemaker had a great work ethic, positive attitude, and a clear vision for a future career in international environmental policy and law.

“She would have been a major contributor to international environmental policy and law on global issues like deforestation and climate change,” Holloway says. “She had everything it took to be a major success. This is what she wanted to devote her life to and she would have been spectacular.”

This fall, Shoemaker was a student in a graduate level environmental studies class taught by Holloway. Shoemaker was a mature student who produced an advanced paper on how satellite data could be used to enforce international deforestation policies, Holloway says.

“She was a real star and just a delightful person,” Holloway says. In her paper, “she latched on to a hot issue and did a great job with her analysis of it. She had an eye for what were important issues and how she could contribute.”

According to her obituary, Shoemaker worked on campus as a bartender and server at the Fluno Center, and volunteered as a tutor for an international student who spoke little English. She was also an avid fan of the Wisconsin Badgers and those who attended her visitation were encouraged to wear Wisconsin Badger attire.

Online condolences for the family may be left at www.oconnellfuneralhomes.com, or through Anna’s CaringBridge site at www.caringbridge.org/visit/annashoemaker.

Shoemaker’s obituary says that in lieu of flowers, memorials to Shoemaker’s family will be directed to causes that were important to her.