More than 150 students recognized with awards

From studying the linguistics of Wisconsin dialects to the after-effects of traumatic brain injury, the dozens of students honored at Monday’s Chancellor’s Undergraduate Awards Ceremony encompassed the principles of teaching, research, outreach and public service that underlie the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s mission.

Take Danielle Schuld, a soon-to-be graduate from Portage. She is a biology major hoping to one day become a veterinarian. While taking a linguistics class to fulfill a humanities credit, she turned a class project into a partnership with her professor, exploring the various dialects across the state of Wisconsin.

“Before I started research, I didn’t really know there were different accents throughout Wisconsin,” Schuld said.

Schuld tested accents in Milwaukee, Sheboygan and Eau Claire and found that regional differences were based on immigration patterns. The Milwaukee accent had a distinct sound and was easily identifiable because of the wide variety of immigrants who came to the city and the earlier timeline of their arrival.

Some award winners took on topics closely tied to their career aspirations. Haley Dresang is a graduating senior from Shorewood studying communication sciences. She explored how people with traumatic brain injury struggle with basic communication skills.

“The communications and cognition laboratory where I work has a lot of patients with traumatic brain injury,” Dresang says. “I have done a lot of research seeing that people with traumatic brain injury have these social impairments and it makes it harder for them to get and keep jobs and maintain their social life.”

She tested these impairments by asking subjects to complete a sentence. People unaffected by brain injury finished the task with ease, but those who had been injured had difficulty processing the simple cue.

“A very important part about understanding people with traumatic brain injury is the impact of the injuries themselves,” Dresang says. “There are a lot of things that happen on an individual basis that people don’t realize.”

Projects like Dresang’s provide insight into topics doctors are still struggling to fully comprehend. It’s the Wisconsin Idea in action, always looking to make new discoveries and expand upon old theories.

A total of 152 UW–Madison students received awards at the annual banquet, and another seven were given honorable mentions. A complete list is available here. 

The awards included the Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship, the Holstrom Environmental Scholarship, the Sophomore Research Fellowship, the University Book Store Award for Academic Excellence, and the Theodore Herfurth and Teddy Kubly Award for Initiative and Efficiency.

Later this week, 29 more students will be honored with Meyerhoff Awards, which recognize a commitment to community service.

In addition, five students won either Barry Goldwater or Harry Truman national scholarships. There was an honorable mention for Goldwater as well as one for the Udall Scholarship, while there was also one finalist apiece for the Rhodes Scholarship and Marshall Scholarship.