Marcie Bernard ’25 explored the different avenues of veterinary medicine in the Amazon Rainforest as she worked to rehabilitate and rewild animals at Hoja Nueva.
The Johnson Program
By enlisting guidance from the W&L science community, Emma Marvelli ’27 combined a Spring Term abroad class with summer research to better understand Virginia meta-basalts and their potential for combating climate change.
Siya ’27 married her passions for service with her economics and mathematics majors to intern this summer at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh through the Shepherd Program.
With the support of a Johnson Opportunity Grant, Sofia Iuteri ’27 is expanding the reach of the nonprofit she founded at 16.
Misha Lin ’25 is taking her dance education to the next level this summer with intensive aerial dance training, finishing with a two-week international festival in August.
In Case You Missed It
Ryan Doty’s summer passion project explored his family lineage through poetry and photography.
At the New England Aquarium, Julia Luzzio ’25 is expanding her horizons and gaining hands-on experience working with wildlife.
Cole Gershkovich ’24 found his purpose studying spaces that foster belonging and empowerment among individuals with mental health challenges.
Ben Bankston ’25 is finding opportunities at W&L to challenge himself in and out of the classroom.
A Washington Term class with a real-world focus prepared Singer for post-graduate work in the federal government.
Yurechko ’24 is the university’s first Marshall Scholar.
Elizabeth Knapp serves as director of the Johnson Program and professor of earth and environmental geoscience.
Grant funding through W&L's Johnson Program allows student recipients to pursue passion projects and career development around the world.
Katie Yurechko ’24 presented on how algorithm awareness impacts algospeak use on TikTok.
Pernell has been awarded a Young Professional Journalist Program Award to conduct research and gain career experience in Germany.
Avalon Pernell ’23 credits the mentorship she received on campus as she launches her career in business journalism.
Sadie Charles Calame ’23 has built a well-rounded college experience through campus and community involvement.
Phillips '23 is the university’s 18th Rhodes Scholar.
Washington and Lee students blazed their own trails this summer to pursue their passions.
Bonner Kirkland '23 conducted biomedical research this summer in the Children’s National Hospital’s Department of Genetic Medicine.
Brendan Smith ’24 worked in the British House of Commons as a parliamentary research intern in London.
Lucy Worthy ’24 is conducting clinical research and shadowing a physician at the Mayo Clinic.
Diwesh Kumar ’24 is developing investment banking expertise at his summer internship at Boxwood Partners in Richmond, Virginia.
Tripathi will teach English to students in Colombia for 10 months.
After receiving a great deal of support from upperclassmen at Washington and Lee University, Hannah Puckett ’23 pays it forward by dedicating her time to mentoring and counseling first-year students.
Lauren Hoaglund '22 has parlayed her passion for medieval and Renaissance history, literature, classics and theater into a busy but rewarding four years at W&L.
Allie Stankewich '23 spent summer 2021 learning about public health in Uganda and green roofs in New York City.
Katana Evans '22 used summer enhancement funds to intern with Rep. Julia Brownley's office and Recovery Organization Resources.
Chris Tucker '23 spent the summer researching Western Bluebirds in Missoula with a biology professor from the University of Arizona.
Paige Anderson '22 is spending the summer recording an album of classical violin music in memory of her grandmother.
Everything has fallen into place at W&L for Alankrit Shatadal '21, who complemented her academic experience with research, peer counseling and membership in University Singers.
In a new episode of "After Class," W&L’s Lifelong Learning podcast, Elizabeth Knapp, geology professor and director of the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity, discusses her love of geology and the impact of the Johnson Program.
Kathryn Muensterman ’22 has won a $34,000 Beinecke Scholarship to help fund her graduate studies.
Rafay Hassan '22 was looking for a liberal arts university that would give him individualized attention and put his critical thinking skills to the test. He found that and more at W&L.
James Ricks ’21 plans to work this summer with the Oda Foundation in Nepal.
On April 3 at 8 p.m., Fuller will showcase her insight and creativity in a series of original compositions performed by W&L student performers.
Song will perform selections by composers J. S. Bach, Antonín Leopold Dvořák, Dmitri Shostakovich and James Stephenson for her senior cello recital on April 2 at 8 p.m.
Each scholar is awarded $7,500 to support undergraduate research in their junior or senior year.
At W&L, Lorena Terroba Urruchua ’21 found her purpose — helping people with disabilities — at the intersection of psychology, Romance languages and poverty studies.
At W&L, Mary North Jones has been able to pursue interests in both European history and medicine as she builds a foundation for her career.
At W&L, Katherine Ingram '20 found a research interest—and a future profession—where environmental studies meets economics.
A class in Denmark, an internship in India and lots of eye-opening experiences in the Lexington community have encouraged Amanda Dorsey '21 to advocate for inclusion in the public health field.
Lainey Johnson '16 values connections with a variety of people from different backgrounds, which is something she learned to prize at W&L.
Luke Basham '20 parlays a passion for politics into the challenging role of Democratic Party analyst for Mock Con 2020.
Hannah Denham ’20 won first place in a prestigious feature writing competition for a piece she wrote during an internship at The Washington Post.
Gabriele, a 2019 graduate, is the university’s 17th Rhodes Scholar.
Senior Laura Calhoun looks back at her W&L experience and celebrates the community she's built here.
Clifford Ando’s and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan’s lectures are free and open to the public.
Chaisson’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Cosmic Evolution.”
Julianna Keeling ’19 applied her passion for the environment to build a company focused on biodegradable consumer products.
For students like Lourdes Arana '21, the London Internship Program combines course work, internships and alumni support to create an unforgettable educational experience.
Ben Peeples '21 is enjoying a chemistry internship at Brown University while training for the World Canoeing Championships in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Through coursework and connections, Hannah Archer '20 helped to create a school food service program to ensure that local children have enough to eat during the summer.
James Ricks '21 is spending the summer working for The Oda Foundation in Nepal, where he is researching tobacco use and working with children to create a mural that represents health in their town.
Each scholar is awarded $7,500 to support undergraduate research in their junior or senior year.
The scholarship was created to encourage more American students to study in the Middle East.
Washington and Lee University senior Kathryn McEvoy ’19 has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain for summer 2019.
Dau will live and work in Vienna for nine months.
Margaret Kallus ’19 will be the second W&L alumna to join a team of economists at the Harvard University research institute, Opportunity Insights.
Hannah Denham '20 has combined business journalism with women and gender studies at W&L to create a liberal arts education that suits her interests and ambition.
Deepthi Thumuluri '20 won a Virginia Academy of Sciences grant to continue her research into the relationship between diet-induced obesity, exercise and the gut microbiome.
Daniel Rhoades '19 spent the summer immersed in the language and culture of Costa Rica.
Virginia McGhee ’19 spent the summer at Stanford University building polymers in Bob Waymouth ’82’s chemistry lab.
Anne Rodgers '20 completed a 2018 summer internship with Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE) through the Shepherd Program. These are her reflections.
A grant from the Endeavor Foundation allowed Midha Ahmad '21 and Sawera Khan '21 to spend the summer in Pakistan, where they compared alternative medicine to traditional treatment.
Jesse Evans '20 spent his summer ensuring that this year's summit, which took place Sept. 21-22, would be a success.
The Critical Language Scholarship Program has allowed Riley Ries '19 to strengthen his Russian and learn more about politics and culture in Kyrgyzstan.
Attending the Princeton Environmental Ideathon was a natural progression for Julianna Keeling '19, who started a sustainable packaging company when she was still in high school.
Washington and Lee students utilize their summers through research, volunteer work and internship opportunities, both on campus and across the globe.
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) research fellowship will allow her to conduct research at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Chemical Defense.
More than any other experience at W&L, the Outing Club has taught Bowen Spottswood '18 about living life joyfully.
As she prepares to work for the Equality of Opportunity Project, Amanda Wahlers '18 is grateful for the education, opportunities and research experience she has had in Lexington.
Jared Shely '18 will use the grant to continue his work teaching English to students in Latin America.
At this small-town university, Nora Devlin '19 has been exposed to viewpoints from all over the globe.
Kat Oakley '19 has spent a lot of time contemplating the idea of "place" - both in Lexington and across the world.
Graham Novak '19 may only be a junior at W&L, but he has already lined up a job — at his own company.
Broadcast journalism opportunities have been plentiful at W&L for Ford Carson '18, but the highlight of his college career has been founding a satirical publication, The Radish.
Monica Musgrave '18 is already double-majoring, but that didn't stop her from spending six-weeks in England studying two completely different subjects.
Skyler T. Zunk ’19 was an intern at the White House's Office of Political Affairs.
The best place to research your thesis? Some would say the library, but for Jacqueline Moruzzi '18 that place is the Cambridge University's Medieval Studies Summer Program.
As a research assistant at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Rachel Steffen ’18 gathered data on the environmental thresholds of juvenile sandbar sharks.
Jackson Roberts '19 had the opportunity to intern in Quito, Ecuador, exploring local customs, becoming part of the community, and learning the ins and outs of healthcare.
Shadowing surgeons in Thailand made neuroscience major Emily Ellis '18 even more excited about her chosen career path.
Marta Regn ’19 used her internship to throughly explore all aspects of a sustainable, ethical jewelry startup.
Laura Stagno '18 saw the faces of America's future leaders, including her own, through an internship on Capitol Hill.
Vicky Kazmierczak '18 spent the summer in Memphis, learning the ins and outs of non-profit work — and how to hope.
Working for the documentary filmmaking company Ark Media allowed Claire Hoffert '18 to exercise her research muscles and learn new skills.
Over 1,200 miles of biking and hiking trails led Ralston Hartness '18 from Spain to Ireland, discovering the meaning of pilgrimage along the way.
Alex Meilech '18 spent the summer in Santiago, Chile, learning the language, exploring the culture, and caring for the people of the country.
Julia Kaczmar '19 spent a summer in New York City, learning the logistics of the latest fashions.
Mandy Witherspoon ’18 combined her love of art with her expertise in business at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Danielle Hughson's honors thesis will be focused on male editorial control and how it affects female writers, within a familial and patriarchal context.
A grant from the Endeavor Foundation allowed Yoko Koyama '19 and Maren Lundgren '18 to open a store in Cameroon that will fund transportation for local children to go to middle school in a neighboring town.
Maggie Little, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics (KIE) at Georgetown University, will speak on “Research With Pregnant Women: A Moral Imperative.”
As a summer counselor with the nonprofit Camp Fire Alaska, Chase Wonderlic '18 got in touch with his inner child and his adventurous spirit.
Olivia Kubli '18's summer volunteer work included photographing lions, giraffes and elephants in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Clay uses a comparative approach with primates to investigate the evolution of human behavior.
Anna Milewski '18 has spent time in fields, labs, carpenter shops and seminar rooms - and it was all part of one internship at the home of George Washington.
Hannah Palmatary '18 spent the summer discovering the ancient ruins of Greece, as well as her own talent and passion for creative writing.
Yavuz Durmaz ’20 worked with Professor Kyle Friend to probe mRNA instability.
Lorena Hernandez Barcena '19 had an eye-opening summer internship with Harlem Children’s Zone, an education nonprofit in New York.
Liz Todd '19 was able to extend her Spring Term Abroad and spend the summer in Brazil, where she worked for an environmental agency.
A summer at UC San Diego gave Katie Volk '18 experience working in a big research environment
Stewart’s talk will include readings from her poetry collection “Cinder.”
Shadowing doctors in Peru allowed Bryan D'Ostroph '19 to practice his Spanish and firm up future career plans in health care.
Dr. Danielle S. Allen, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, presented “Democracy 101: We Hold These Truths....” at Fall Convocation on Sept. 6, 2017.
Washington and Lee University’s Williams School will hold its sixth annual Entrepreneurship Summit Sept. 29-30.
Swimmer, computer coder, and Speaking Tradition advocate Will McMurtry '18 chose W&L over nine other schools, in large part because of its community.
Through the U.Va. Field School for Public Health Research, Julie Sklar '18 was able to work with a medical anthropologist and epidemiologist in South Africa this summer.
Klinenberg's talk, “The Sociology of Connection: From Going Solo to Modern Romance,” is open to the public.
Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, will address W&L's 2017 Fall Convocation.
After spending Spring Term in Ethiopia, Jack Kaelin '19 is in Austin, Texas, helping refugees find a place to call home.
Julia Poppenberg '19 spent the summer as a translator in Guatemala, helping doctors and patients alike and learning to "talk strong."
Jack Miller '19 has spent his summer in the bush of South Africa, learning about wildlife and conservation - and having a few close calls in the field.
Jason Renner ’19 interned this summer for two lobbying firms in Washington, D.C.
Will Schirmer ’20 investigates the fluid dynamics of periodic water surges.
Elena Diller '17 and Caroline Todd '17 saw a need for more perspective in academics — so they got to work.
Jake Roberts' study abroad trip started with an earthquake, and ended with him finding a passion for public health.
Stephen Mitchell '17 credits students, alumni, and W&L academics for helping him to find the right career path.
Amirah S. Ndam Njoya ‘17 believes leadership, travelling, service, and scholarship are all vital parts of the W&L experience.
JASC is a student-exchange program, initiated in 1934 by university students concerned by the breakdown of bilateral relations prior to World War II.
Isabella Sparhawk used her Johnson Opportunity Grant to spend five weeks in India, studying vinyasa yoga and photojournalism.
What can you do in four years at W&L? How about manage a radio show, start a service organization, found a club, or publish an EP? Austin Frank ’17 has done them all.
Alexander Rurka '17 knows the ups-and-downs (and loop-de-loops) of flying and competing in an international plane building competition
Brett Becker '18 and the W&L Pre-Dental Club teamed up with Rockbridge Area Health Center to distribute dental supplies to more than 700 local children.
Guen splits his time between hiking the mountains of Rockbridge and traveling the world.
LaPointe, who says his personal motto is "being genuine goes a long way," is a world traveler, professional debater, and Johnson Scholar.
W&L senior Harrison Westgarth has been awarded a Fulbright grant to Brazil, where he will study the “Development of an Animal Model of Direct and Congenital Zika Virus Transmission.”
Karishma Patel '18 loves finding the intersections of technology and business - while studying abroad in Madrid.
For the 2017 competition, NSF received over 13,000 applications and made 2,000 award offers.
Washington and Lee will host a reception celebrating Paqui Toscano's selection as a Rhodes Scholar on Friday, March 17, from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. in the Commons Living Room.
Meet Shlomo Honig ‘18, whose day consists of analyzing rocks, protecting the environment, and ultimate frisbee
Meet Harry Lustig ‘17, a scholar-explorer who’s hiked everywhere from the Blue Ridge to Alaska.
Alex Meilech '18 has experienced tradition - from Lexington, Virginia to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Michael Hill, associate professor of English at the University of Iowa, will deliver a public lecture on “‘American Dreamin’: Adolescence in the Black Imagination.”
Meet Ryder Babik '19, a student who enjoys college as much as he enjoys helping others apply to college.
Meet Graham Novak '19, an aspiring - and already accomplished - entrepreneur
Meet Harrison Westgarth '17, a pre-med varsity athlete with a passion for teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages.
Meet Stephanie Chung '18, an anthropology major with a passion for women's health advocacy.
Meet some of Washington and Lee University's talented crop of Johnson Scholars.
Finding answers in the space where science and art intersect.
Meet Andy Cuthbert '18, a pre-med neuroscience major with a serious love of the outdoors.
Michael Sullivan spent his summer interning at the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Netherlands in Amsterdam
Pasquale “Paqui” Toscano, a classics and English double major, is Washington and Lee’s 16th Rhodes Scholar. The Rhodes Trust announced Sunday that Toscano, 22, of Kettering, Ohio, was one of 32 scholars chosen this year. The scholarships, valued at between $50,000 to $200,000, fully fund two to four years of study at the University of Oxford in England.
Geology professor Lisa Greer, who has been taking students to Belize since 2011 to monitor the health of coral reefs, said their research indicates that the latest El Niño, on top of global climate change, may be harming the Belize Barrier Reef.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Cameron Lee interns at the Cluj School of Public Health in Romania.
Jamie Hayes ’17 spent two summer months in New Zealand, where he conducted research that could eventually help to improve the diagnosis of gastrointestinal ailments.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Bogdan Bors '17 interns with Community Empowerment Solutions, a social entrepreneurship company focusing on microconsignment opportunities in Ecuador.
Westgarth spent the summer interning at the NIH researching the rare congenital lysosomal storage disease, Neimann Pick Type C.
Above or below the water, Sasha Doss '13 studies and connects with fish and their environment.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Sonia Brozak '17 Travels to Florence to Study Art History.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Prakhar Naithani '17 conducts research at North Carolina State University's Forestry Biomaterials Department.
Gray Rixey '18 spent part of his summer interning for a member of the British Parliament as part of the London Internship Program. He had no idea it would happen during one of the most tumultuous periods in British history.
Matt Simpson, a 2012 graduate of Washington and Lee University, posted a photo of himself and the U.S. men’s goalball team decked out in their Team U.S.A. uniforms just before the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which runs Sept. 7 – 18.
Meet Jordan LaPointe '17, an East Asian Languages and Literatures major with a sense of adventure. A lifelong dream comes true in Japan.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Franklin Wolfe '16 Travels to Europe to Gather Data for 3D Geologic Models.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Sara Jones '18 Travels to India to Study Maternal and Child Health.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Kayla Sylvester '17 Volunteers with a Local Literacy Council in South Dakota.
Biology and Spanish major Harrison Westgarth '17 researches a rare congenital disease at the National Institutes of Health.
ODK National Leader of the Year Paqui Toscano talks about his approach to leadership.
Johnson Opportunity Grant winner connects interests in economics and art history at famed auction house.
Johnson Opportunity Grant winner dives into local politics in Nashville.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Anna Paden Carson '16 Helps Detained Immigrants Navigate the Immigration System.
Johnson Opportunity Grant winner tries her hand at brand marketing in Charleston, S.C.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Stephen Himmelberg '17 Studies Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury.
Johnson Opportunity Grant winner gets a taste of state politics the Tennessee State Capitol.
The 2016 Washington and Lee University Entrepreneurship Summit, hosted by the J. Lawrence Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship at W&L, will take place Sept 23–24. The keynote speakers are Ben Sutton, co-founder and chairman emeritus of IMG College and Erika Hagberg, the head of Food and Beverage at Google.
Looking for older stories? See the complete The Johnson Program archive.