Meyerhoff fellowship to share Wisconsin Experience

All Meyerhoff Excellence Award-winning juniors and seniors are now eligible to apply for the new Meyerhoff Wisconsin Experience Fellowship.

Excellence award recipients are recognized for demonstrating academic excellence in tandem with leadership and activism, global and cultural engagement and the application of knowledge to the real world.

The new fellowship will honor two members of this distinguished group with an additional cash prize of $1,000 (for a total of $2,000) and the opportunity to share their Wisconsin Experience with fellow undergraduates.

The accomplishments of recent Meyerhoff Undergraduate Excellence awards alumni inspired Aaron Brower, Mary Rouse and Harvey Meyerhoff to establish this fellowship. These alumni include Sharunda Chairse, Erika Lopez, Jeffrey A. Wright and Quilen Blackwell. A Posse Scholar, Chairse earned her Afro-American studies degree with honors and served as a volunteer with Madison’s Neighborhood House Community Center, where she tutored youth and helped found a parents’ board. Chairse also volunteered with CASPER/Safe Haven Program where she worked with girls living in local homeless shelters. She received a Fulbright grant to study youth empowerment programs in Ethiopia and plans to one day start her own nonprofit.

As a freshman, Lopez was one of 10 women to charter a chapter of Kappa Delta Chi, a service sorority, on the UW–Madison campus. She served as fundraising chair and president of the organization, and her leadership was recognized with an Outstanding Student Leader of the Year Award from the Student Organizations Office, the Established Leader of the Year Award from the Multicultural Student Center and the Outstanding Chapter President Award. Lopez has since served as an award-winning teacher with Teach For America in Chicago and is currently applying to law school.

“Being recognized as a Meyerhoff recipient was an honor because it recognized my hard work in different areas of my undergraduate career,” Lopez says. “My academic studies and research in economics and political science did not always overlap with my passion and commitment to social justice and community service, but the Meyerhoff award recognized my high academic achievements while also recognizing my contributions to the campus and surrounding community.”

Wright was a model leader within Associated Students of Madison. He consistently sought high levels of responsibility within the organization and made significant contributions to institutional change and the development of other student leaders. Wright served as the chair of the Shared Governance Committee, where he worked to protect student rights and develop student leaders. Wright is currently working in Washington, D.C. 

Quilen has been described as having been one of the most engaged, innovative and visible student leaders on campus. He is best known as the founder of People Opposing Prejudice (POP), a student organization that strives to increase understanding among different racial and ethnic communities. Quilen has recently served in the Peace Corps. 

Each of these recipients kept strong academic records while continuing to volunteer their time and efforts to beneficial causes in the UW–Madison community. Through speaking engagements and print articles, which may include speeches at freshman convocation and school and college venues, and in feature articles in the campus and student newspapers, the new fellows will encourage underclassmen to make the most of their own Wisconsin Experience.

The Meyerhoff Wisconsin Experience Fellowship application is due late March. For more details and information on how to apply, visit http://www.provost.wisc.edu/uaa/awards/meyerhoffExperience.html