W&L Announces Final Winners of 2014 Johnson Opportunity Grants

By Sarah Tschiggfrie
May 7, 2014

Washington and Lee University has announced the final round of students who will receive 2014 Johnson Opportunity Grants.

The grants cover living, travel and other costs associated with the students’ proposed activities, which are designed to help them with their future careers and fields of study. The grants vary in amount from $1,000 to $4,500 and are funded as part of the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity.

The 19 students will conduct research, attend conferences, complete internships, volunteer and study a variety of subjects in locations around the world. Research will include psychology, volcano samples, William Wordsworth and early modern English drama. Other students will intern, volunteer or study in South Vietnam, China, Mexico, Southern California, England and Cameroon. And one student will walk 500 miles along a traditional pilgrim trail in northern Spain.

Michael Bronstein, a junior psychology major from Canton, Mass., will spend the summer as a research assistant helping to design and implement original research in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Specifically, he will assist Dr. Bill Gehring, a leader in the field of clinically relevant electrophysiology research and Bronstein’s first choice as a graduate school mentor. Bronstein is a Johnson Scholar, a tutor at W&L’s writing center, vice president of the W&L chapter of the Psi Chi Honor Society and a peer tutor in psychology. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Eta Sigma and Beta Beta Beta honor societies and the Association for Psychological Science.
Christina Cheadle, a sophomore from Escondido, Calif., has been selected through a competitive process to be a U.S. delegate to the 66thJapanese-American Student Conference. She will join 72 other students—36 Americans and 36 Japanese—at the month-long student-led program which will discuss Japanese-American relations. The conference alternates each year between Japanese and U.S. cities. This year it will be held in Des Moines, Iowa; San Francisco, Calif.; New York, New York and Washington, D.C. Cheadle is an anthropology and art history major and her ambition is to become a curator of Japanese art. She is a member of W&L’s Japanese Tea Society and event planner for Pi Beta Phi sorority.
Caroline Crichlow-Ball, a junior double major in psychology and sociology from Austin, Texas, will intern with Dr. Philip Pate, a forensic psychologist in Winchester, Va., who evaluates sex offenders for trial and conducts capacity interviews of parents whose children have been removed by Social Services. As a forensic assistant, she will conduct background research, review intake forms, observe client interviews ,administer and score psychological tests, review evaluations, write reports and communicate with attorneys and Social Services. She will also accompany Dr. Pate on visits to jails and to court dates. Crichlow-Ball is a Johnson Scholar, a member of Kappa Delta sorority and a peer counselor. She is a member of the Student Recruitment Committee and the Student-Faculty Hearing Board.
Stephanie Do is a junior from Hanoi, Vietnam, and a double major in accounting and business administration and East Asian language and literature. She will spend the summer as an intern at one of the world’s largest accounting firms in Ho Chi Minh City in South Vietnam. In addition to gaining auditing skills, Do and her fellow interns will attend a pitch competition to propose an original business idea that is useful to the Vietnamese people in their daily lives. She will also have opportunities for community service, such as teaching sex education to young students or organizing fund-raising events to help the poor and orphans. Do is a member of W&L’s Student Association for International Learning and the W&L Ladies’ Club.
Shelby Flores, a junior from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is a double major in economics and Spanish with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies. She has been selected for a 10-week summer internship at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, through the U.S. Department of State Student Internship Program. Her duties will be primarily research-based, including reviewing and analyzing the effect of Mexican tourism on the United States, compiling data on E-visas and mapping the interagency coordination procedures in Mexico City to create a summary of best practices. Flores is president of the Chi Omega fraternity and president of W&L’s Women’s Volleyball Club.
Liam Gaziano, a sophomore from Dedham, Mass., has been accepted as a visiting student at the Stroke Prevention Research Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, England. The unit is regarded as one of the most productive stroke research groups in the world. Gaziano is a bio-chemistry major and plans to become a doctor. He will work on a number of research projects, including a large-scale study of the feasibility, safety and effectiveness of Bluetooth home telemetric blood pressure monitoring after stroke. He will be involved in cleaning and collating study data and will help generate initial analyses and results. Gaziano is a member of W&L’s men’s soccer team and Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
Lindsay George, a sophomore from York, Pa., and a double major in English and art history with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies, will spend the summer in Costa Rica at the Academia de Español in Nicoya, a Spanish language immersion school. Nicoya is a small village located close to the Guatemalan border and offers minimal interaction with tourists. She will take intensive language instruction in the mornings and in the afternoon will intern at different businesses in town. She will also work as a teacher’s assistant in a local elementary school. At W&L, George is a tutor in Spanish and French for Languages for Rockbridge in local elementary schools and a peer tutor in French. She is a student-to-student mentor and a Panhellenic delegate for Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
Ellen Gleason, a junior from Santa Barbara, Calif., and a double major in politics and economics, will intern in the finance department of the Democratic National Committee. Day-to-day work will include organizing and planning large-scale fundraising events, maintaining the DNC’s database of donors, and promoting and staffing events. She will also attend weekly “brown bag” events with senior staff members to learn about various positions available in politics. Gleason is a Johnson Scholar and co-president of W&L’s Habitat for Humanity fundraising board. She is a member of Washington and Lee Student Consulting and chief marketing officer of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
Phil Kong, a junior from Downey, Calif., and a native of South Korea, is a double major in geology and biochemistry. He will explore the geochemistry of volcanic samples from the Cascade Mountain Range on the west coast of the United States. Kong will then send the samples to Washington State University’s geo-analytical laboratory for X-ray fluorescence analysis to provide accurate data to characterize the lavas in the volcanoes. Kong is a Johnson scholar, a member of the American Chemical Society and president of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He is also head garden manager of W&L’s Campus Gardens and co-founder and vice president of Washington and Lee Culinary Club.
Kiril Krendov, a sophomore from Sofia, Bulgaria, will intern at Pearl Consulting in Zhuhai, China, through the program “InternChina.” He is a double major in business administration and East Asian languages (Chinese concentration). During his three-month stay he will learn about different aspects of finance including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, share listings of Chinese companies in the United States, foreign currency exchange rates, financial forecasting and financial modeling. In addition to one-on-one Chinese language classes, Krendov will stay with a local family and immerse himself in Chinese culture. He also plans to visit Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou. He is a member of W&L’s Williams Investment Society and is on the marketing and lending committees of W&L’s Community Financial Freedom.
Grace Lee, a junior from Boca Raton, Fla., will travel to Cameroon to serve as a volunteer in three different medical placements, arranged by the nonprofit organization “Love Volunteers.” Lee is a biochemistry major with a minor in poverty and human capability studies and plans to pursue a medical degree and work with non-profit organizations. In addition to taking part in hospital activities such as taking blood pressure, assisting during rounds and observing surgical procedures, she may also have the opportunity to accompany medical personnel into rural communities for outreach programs to educate local people about sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and to provide first aid for small injuries. Lee is a Johnson scholar and a member of the Shepherd Student Faculty Board. She is a head honor advocate for undergraduates, chemistry chair of W&L’s Women in Technology and Science and health and disabled chair of the Nabors Service League.
Brittany Lloyd, a junior from Abington, Pa., will undertake a summer internship with the Native American Land Conservancy in Southern California, which aims to protect endangered Native American sites. An English and sociology/anthropology double major, Lloyd will continue her research on place names in Native American cultures and how land and language relate to one another. She also hopes to begin original research on different linguistic aspects of local Native American sacred sites and work with the Learning and Healing Landscapes program to promote understanding about sacred Native American sites. Lloyd is a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and writes for the Washington and Lee student-run blog.
Alejandro Paniagua is a sophomore from San José, Costa Rica. He is a double major in business administration and environmental studies and plans to spend the summer doing research in northeastern Australia and northern New Zealand. He will be comparing and contrasting the forests in these countries as they share a similar Gondwanan history but have undergone different changes due to human activity. He is a tutor with W&L’s English as a Second Language, a university peer tutor, a member of the International Education Committee, W&L’s Student Consulting, the Biological Honor Society and Sigma Nu fraternity. He is also a resident of the Global Service House, a member of the Multicultural Student Association, Student Environmental Action League, committee chair and delegate for the Model United Nations and president of the Student Association for International Learning.
Austin Pierce, a junior from Yorktown, Va., will attend Leiden University’s prestigious summer linguistics program. Pierce is a triple major in economics, philosophy and East Asian languages and literature and intends to pursue a degree in law and global affairs. During the program he will study Old English, the Caucasian language Avar and two Indo-Iranian languages—Ossetic and Old Persian. He is a Johnson scholar, a peer tutor in Chinese and a founding member of the Spanish literary magazine “Pluma.” He is one of the general co-chairs of the First-Year Orientation Committee and founding president of Providing Lively Amusement for Young Adults. He is also vice-president of the Shakespeare Society, a dance instructor for the African Society and a member of both W&L’s University Singers and the acapella singing group General Admission.
Eric Schwen, a junior from Cottage Grove, Minn., is a physics major and will attend two international physics conferences this summer. The Condensed Matter Conference in Paris is jointly organized by the French Physical Society and the European Physical Society and covers a wide range of topics in condensed matter physics. The International Conference on Mathematical Modeling in Physical Sciences will take place in Madrid and focuses specifically on scientific applications of mathematical modeling. Each conference has a wide selection of invited speakers representing some of the most respected researchers in condensed matter and statistical physics. Schwen is a Johnson scholar and a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He is a teaching assistant in W&L’s physics laboratory, an academic peer tutor in introductory physics and calculus and a member of W&L’s Outing Club.
Scott Sugden, a junior from Circle Pines, Minn., and a double major in English and biology, will conduct independent primary research of William Wordsworth’s papers held by The Wordsworth Trust in England’s Lake District. The trust is an independent charity that houses Wordsworth’s manuscripts donated to the trust by his descendants in 1935. They include the published and unpublished versions of Wordsworth’s poetry with revisions in his own hand, which will allow Sugden to examine revisions that Wordsworth made to some of his works and analyze how they were revised. Sugden is a Johnson scholar, a tutor in French at Rockbridge County High School and a W&L peer tutor in introductory chemistry. He is a member of the University Bluegrass Ensemble, the University Jazz Ensemble and the University Wind Ensemble. He is music editor of The Muse literary/arts magazine, a member of inGeneral student magazine and the Student Environmental Action league.
Anh Ta, a sophomore from Hanoi, Vietnam, will spend two months in Shanghai, China, as an intern with FTI Consulting, a global business consultancy firm, through the Shanghai Summer Internship program of CIEE, a non-profit organization. Ta is a double major in accounting and economics and plans to launch her future career in Shanghai. The program also offers an advanced course in Chinese language and participants are required to speak Chinese as much as possible. Ta is co-chair of the international student alliance committee of the Student Association for International Learning and a member of the University’s women’s choir Cantrici, the Pan-Asian Association for Cultural Exchange and the Multicultural Student Association.
Katherine Uhlir, a sophomore from Boulder, Colo., will extend her Spring Term course, Shakespeare in Performance, with a three-week extension as research assistant to Holly Pickett, associate professor of English at W&L. Uhlir will assist with research into sensual perception of idolatry in early modern English drama, focusing on archival research and the study of relics in the context of early modern drama. They will conduct the research at The Globe Theatre, the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum in London as well as at Campion Hall in Oxford and Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. Uhlir is a resident of W&L’s Leadership House, which focuses on involvement, leadership development, school spirit and community.
Andrew Watson, a junior from Great Falls, Va., will undertake a 500-mile journey on foot along the traditional pilgrimage route Camino de Santiago, which winds through France and northern Spain. It was first popularized by medieval pilgrims traveling to visit the tomb of St. James in Santiago. Hiking approximately 25 to 30 kilometers a day and staying in pilgrim hostels, Watson will maintain a journal to document the influence of cultural and historic elements on the identity of Camino today. He is a Johnson scholar and a biology major with a minor in Classics. He is rider with W&L’s polo club and a member of the College Libertarians.