Center for Women's Studies Honors and Awards Ceremony
April 21, 2007, Ballroom, Mountainlair
Women’s studies honorees and friends gather to celebrate the year’s achievements
- Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Women's Studies Teaching Assistant Award
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Women's Studies Senior
These awards are given through the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences for exemplary work, with cash awards of $250 each given through the Center for Women's Studies, following the tradition set by the West Virginia Alliance for Women's Studies in the mid-1990s.
Lauren Wallace really exemplifies the blending of scholarship and activism that is the hallmark of women’s studies. In addition to being an outstanding student, and this year’s outstanding resident assistant for Pierpont House, she was involved in many extracurricular activities related to improving conditions for women on this campus and throughout the country. These included serving as president of the WVU Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) and as treasurer of the WVU Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. She also made an extra effort to reach out to international students at Salem International University, in Salem, West Virginia, helping them re-establish an International Women’s Alliance, inviting them to speak on campus, and giving a speech to them on U.S. Foreign Policy and its Impact on Women in the Third World. Lauren held two important internships related to women’s studies, one with the Victim Witness Assistance Program in Monongalia County, where she contacted victims and witnesses to explain legal processes to them and did community outreach for the program, and one at the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), one of the premier activist organizations on behalf of women around the world. The FMF internship is highly competitive, and her job was to research voting laws in 40 states and create an information/action kit for college voter registration drives, research and organize data for an information kit on women’s involvement in college student governments, speak to an audience of over 100 at the U.S. Senate office building with members of Congress on college women’s involvement in student government, and represent the FMF at conferences. When Barb Howe met one of the FMF staff at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in June 2006, her first comment was “send us more students like Lauren.”
Kayla Kreitzer received this award based on her contributions to our program beyond what is strictly required as the WMST 170: Introduction to Women’s Studies/WMST 150: Women in Movies GTA. Specifically, she used her classroom knowledge from her graduate work to assist us in developing the assessment program for women’s studies, and as a women’s studies graduate from WVU, wrote a letter to our other graduates last summer to encourage them to participate in the assessment program when visiting committee members would call them. Especially impressive is her willingness to try new things in the classroom and to take some risks. Kayla frequently developed and shared new materials for our women's studies courses. She put together a great unit in her area of interest--chick lit and "Sex in the City"--for WMST 170. She has also delivered lectures to the WMST150 class (which contains 250 students) on chick flicks and action films. These are just a few examples of the passion she brings to her teaching and scholarship in women's studies.
Center for Women’s Studies WMST 170 Excellence in Teaching Award
Mindy Graham has excelled in the classroom every semester that she has taught WMST 170: Introduction to Women's Studies. Her students rave about her skills as a teacher in their course evaluations. They love the way that Mindy helps them connect the classroom material with their own lives. Part of this is the interest that Mindy has in her students as individuals. She is especially skilled at connecting on a personal level with her students, and yet maintaining her position as the classroom authority. Her students simultaneously respect, trust, and like her. Mindy's enthusiasm for women's studies inspires students to look at their worlds with new eyes and to learn more about our program.
Photos above by Jessie Kalvitis
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"Carrie" scholarships were first endowed in 1987. This $1,200 scholarship will help women who have interrupted their education to complete their undergraduate degrees. The award's namesake, Carrie Koeturius, is a former Morgantown activist for women's issues who came to WVU to finish her bachelor's degree in social work. She currently enjoys great success as a conference/event organizer.
Carrie Koeturius Scholarship for Returning Women Students
Elyse Carole Coen, a graduate of Morgantown’s University High School, attended WVU as a sociology/anthropology major from 1978 to 1981. She has worked as a paraprofessional for behavior disorder special education students for the Monongalia County Board of Education and as a Weight Watchers, Inc., leader. She has volunteered with Greater Love Family Outreach Ministries and His Heart, His Hands and His Feet. She is returning to WVU as a women’s studies and psychology major in the fall of 2007.
Sallie Lowther Norris Showalter Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Related Disciplines
This $1,000 award recognizes an undergraduate woman who demonstrates high mathematical/scientific achievement and commitment to social justice. One of the first women admitted to WVU in 1889, Sallie won the freshman math prize in 1890 and spoke eloquently for women's rights to higher education.
This year’s first place Showalter recipient is Tirzah Ya’el Mills. Second place awards went to Alicia Marie Green, Jessica Hall, Kerri Beth Phillips, and Donna Michele Radice .
Tirzah Ya’el Mills graduated as one of the 8 Order of Augusta Outstanding Seniors in May 2007 with a BS in chemical engineering. She was a teaching assistant/grader for the Department of Chemical Engineering and had internships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her extracurricular activities included serving as president of the Society of Women Engineers (2005-2006) and president of Omega Chi Epsilon Chemical Engineering Honorary.
Alicia Marie Green is a graduate of Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Maryland, and is now a sophomore in the dual bachelors degree program in computer and electrical engineering. She is treasurer of the Society of Women Engineers at WVU and helped with that group’s Girl Scout Day and Eighth Grade Day. She has had a summer internship with Navair, working on cockpit displays for military aircraft. She is also a CCD aide at St. Michael’s Church.
Jessica E. Hall is a senior who will graduate in December 2007 with a BS in forensic and investigative science and a BS in biology. She is a research assistant in the WVU Department of Biology and has been an intern and crime laboratory assistant at the Canton-Stark County ( Ohio) Crime Laboratory. This year, she has a NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium Fellowship. She also plays on the WVU women’s rugby team and is president of the WVU GFWC Junior Woman’s Club.
Kerri Beth Phillips will be graduating in December 2007 with a BS in mechanical and aerospace engineering. She has been a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar and NASA Space Grant Scholar. She now is part of the NASA Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program and is a member of Mortar Board Senior Honorary, Sigma Gamma Tau National Areospace Engineering Honorary, and president of the WVU chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Engineering Student Advisory Council.
Donna Michele Radice will receive her BS in chemistry and BS in forensic science in May 2008. She is a volunteer undergraduate research assistant at WVU. Her activities include the Roles and Purposes Committee for Foundations of Excellence; Phi Lambda Upsilon; the student affiliates of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and American Chemical Society; and the WVU women’s club volleyball team. Phi Kappa Phi named her the Outstanding Freshman of 2004.
Velma Miller/WV Alliance for Women's Studies Graduate Scholar Award
This $1,000 award supports graduate work in women's studies and honors Velma Miller (1907-1996), a founding board member of the West Virginia Alliance for Women's Studies in 1986.
Emily Jo Keener received her BA in psychology from Wheeling Jesuit University in May 2003 and her MA in psychology, with a concentration in experimental psychology, from Radford University in May 2005. She is now working on her PhD in life-span developmental psychology at WVU. She has taught introduction to psychology, psychology of women, and developmental psychology, among other courses, and is a member of Psi Chi psychology honorary.
Photos courtesy of Sue Amos, Infinite Lens Photography.