Phi Kappa Phi awards summer fellowships

The UW–Madison chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi has announced the recipients of the its annual summer fellowship awards. The fellowship program was established to help deserving students extend and enrich their education during the summer by undertaking significant projects away from the campus. This year’s awards, ranging from $750 to $1500, went to the following seven undergraduate members of Phi Kappa Phi:

Melissa Bachhuber, a graduating senior from Green Bay who hopes to start medical school in August 2002. Melissa’s summer fellowship will help pay for her training and certification as a Wilderness First Responder. After completing the Colorado training program sponsored by the Wilderness Medical Institute, she plans to work as a wilderness guide in the Rocky Mountains, leading groups of young adults on extended backpacking trips.

Vinai Gondi, a junior from Milwaukee with a double major in biochemistry and business. Vinai plans to spend five weeks in India this summer, participating in community service projects set up by a non-profit organization called Cross-Cultural Solutions. For the first two weeks he will work at the Mother Teresa Institute for the Destitute and Dying in Delhi, helping the nurses with first aid and patient care, and thereafter he will teach English to rural children in a small Himalayan village.

Andrea L. Gutierrez, a senior in art history from Kohler, Wis. Andrea intends to use her fellowship this summer to do archival research in Madrid and Barcelona, extending and refining her senior honors thesis on a group of book and magazine illustrators in early 20th-century Spain.

Daniel E. Mahoney, a senior in anthropology from Grafton, Wis., who is studying Arabic and other subjects this year at the American University in Cairo. Daniel’s summer project is to participate as a volunteer in an important archeological rescue mission at Tell Teneinir, Syria.

Jennifer Price, a senior in art from Franklin, Wis., who will continue her work in photography at the graduate level next year. Jennifer’s summer project will take her to four traditional villages in northern New Mexico, where she will participate in a project that uses photography as a means of learning about and recording local history and culture.

Cara V. Sawyer, a second-year senior from Lake Forest, Ill., with a double major in music and English. With the help of her summer fellowship, Cara will enrich her training and experience as a French horn player by participating in the Las Vegas Music Festival.

Lachlyn M. Soper, a junior from Argyle, Wis., who is majoring in international relations and Southeast Asian studies. Lachlyn, who is studying abroad in Indonesia this year, will use her summer fellowship to broaden her understanding of Indonesian cultures by studying three ethnic minorities whose traditional beliefs and customs seem to conflict with the general policies of the current government.

At its annual award ceremony this year, the UW–Madison chapter of Phi Kappa Phi also recognized five outstanding faculty members with honorary memberships in the Society: Dean A. Margaret Elowson (College of Letters and Sciences), Professor Donna McCarthy (School of Nursing), Professor Gary Sandefur (Department of Sociology, American Indian Studies Program, Institute for Research on Poverty, and Center for Demography and Ecology), Professor Thomas Sharkey (Department of Botany, Biology Major, and Biotron), and Professor Hyuk Yu (Department of Chemistry).

Two additional undergraduates from UW–Madison were honored this year with national awards from the Phi Kappa Phi: Steven Cory Solomon, a senior from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, who became one of the first ten winners of a Phi Kappa Phi Internship Grant; and Shaun M. Lippow, a Chemical Engineering major from Madison who received one of fifty National Fellowships for students about to begin graduate school.