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Winners of Johnson Opportunity Grants Announced

The Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity at Washington and Lee University has announced the eight inaugural recipients of the Johnson Opportunity Grants. The grants are funded by a gift to W&L which also created scholarships, a lecture and symposia series focusing on leadership and two endowed professorships.

The grant will support students in a variety of off-campus summer projects which will help them in their chosen careers and fields of study. These first eight winners are part of a pilot program for the Johnson Opportunity Grants, which will be fully operational in 2010-2011, at which time between 25-30 students will be chosen yearly.

The grants will vary in amount from $1,000 to $4,500 depending on budgets, travel costs, living expenses and other necessary expenditures. The first eight recipients of Johnson Opportunity Grants are:

  • Hiba Assi ’10, a double major in physics and mathematics and will be conducting research on fluid dynamics in a lab at the American University in Lebanon.
  • Cristina Bratu ’11, an economics major, wants to work with a UN development program in Romania. She will hear about her internship application shortly.
  • James Dick ’10, an economics major, is active in the Shepherd Poverty Program, and will be working in Peru with a microfinance project that helps people in that community take advantage of small business opportunities.
  • Felice Herman ’11, an anthropology major, will spend the summer doing field work in Gabii, Italy-the site of an ancient Latin city that was once a rival to Rome.
  • Catherine Kruse ’11, with a double major in English and psychology and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, has an internship with the National Women’s Law Center in Washington.
  • Kendall Massengill ’10, a biochemistry major, is seeking an internship dealing with health and social justice.
  • Holly Ratliff ’10, with a double major in religion and classics, is planning to work in Washington for an organization that studies the legal and public policy issues involving relations between church and state.
  • Lauren Sturdy ’11, majoring in art history and chemistry, will have an internship with the Museum Conservation Institute in Maryland where she will work on textile conservation.