fau harriet l. wilkes honors college alumni newsletter
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Volume I Issue IITRANSCRIPT
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College October 16, 2014
Alumna Receives NSF Grant for Research in Japan 2013 Honors College alum and FAU psychology graduate student Melissa Stiksma received a grant from the National Science Foundation in conjunction with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science that is allowing her to conduct research in Tsukuba, Japan for ten weeks fully funded. Stiksma’s research examines the levels of mindfulness, personality, anxiety, and depression in both American and Japanese populations. “[I] have had countless unfathomable life experiences and greatly enjoyed starting my work in their lab,” says Stiksma. She keeps a blog about her experiences in Japan, which include feats like hiking
�1Florida Atlantic University
Celebrating 15 Years
August marked the 15-year anniversary for FAU’s Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. Since its inception in 1999, students of the Honors College have thrived while continually giving back to the community through their academic ventures before and after graduation. Activities are planned throughout the 2014/2015 academic year to highlight the campus, the Honors College, students, faculty, and alumni.
Alumni Reunion
The 15th (Crystal) Anniversary of the HC’s Alumni Reunion will be held Saturday, December 20th at the Life Long Learning Center on the Jupiter Campus. Please contact Kat Yates at 561.799.8105 or [email protected] to purchase your tickets. Tickets must be purchased in advance by December 12th, 2014.
ALUMNI NEWS Alumni Updates | Honors College News
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College October 16, 2014
Mount Fuji and petting and feeding domesticated deer that roam the streets of Nara, at www.melissastiksma.wordpress.com.#
At the Honors College"Melissa was not an idle student during her time at the HC. In addition to her involvement in student organizations like Spectrum and the LGBT club, she was a resident assistant and a member of both MacRSA and Jupiter recreation. Melissa credits the Honors College and her thesis advisor for preparing her for graduate school. “I actually think grad school is a little easier than the Honors College,” says Stiksma. “Of course, having a working relationship with my thesis advisor, Dr. Laura Vernon, benefited me greatly as well. Not only do we keep in friendly contact, but we are also currently about to submit a manuscript to publish.” #
Melissa says that “the magic of the Honors College was that it didn’t need a certain event for it to be memorable; just being in the ambiance of the school and fellow colleagues was enough.” Melissa plans to one day receive a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.#
�2Florida Atlantic University
Case Boeshaar ‘11
Case graduated from the Honors College at the end of 2011 with a Bachelors in Political Science and International Studies. Since then, he has worked various jobs, including adult ESOL instructor, technology coordinator for the School District of Palm Beach County, and reading/writing tutor at Palm Beach State College. Recently, he applied and was accepted into the Masters of Public Policy program at Georgetown University, where he began his studies in August.
“The education provided by the Honors College, in addition to [my] diverse work experience, helped me gain acceptance into Georgetown and pursue my career dreams,” Case says.
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College October 16, 2014
Maria Vizcaino ’04 Maria went to a magnet High School in New Jersey, where she was exposed to small classes and a tight-knit school community. With the dream of becoming a marine biologist, she found the community and opportunities afforded at FAU’s Wilkes Honors College a “perfect fit” for pursuing her dreams. The environment assisted in fostering strong ties with both fellow students and professors, which helped shape her future career. While at the Honors College, Maria took a microbiology class that expanded her awareness of the unseen world. With this new interest, she then pursued a semester at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute located in Ft. Pierce, FL, where she was able to incorporate both marine biology and microbiology with her love of chemistry.#
“Being at the Honors College was an amazing experience,” she says. “I built life-long friendships and was exposed to really unique experiences - I got to travel to the Amazon, take classroom trips down to the Keys,
and sail from Tahiti to Hawaii during my Semester Abroad experience at Woods Hole.” #
Maria graduated with concentrations in Chemistry and Marine Biology, and went on to pursue a Ph.D. at the Medical University of South Carolina where she studied the chemical role of marine microbes in corals. Maria is currently a postdoctoral associate at Yale University, and is working on identifying bacterial small molecules involved in regulating human-bacterial interaction. She aspires to continue her focus on the chemical ecological role microorganisms play in their hosts, and hopes to eventually work her way back to the marine environment.#
Jennifer Chiampou ’02 Jennifer was part of the inaugural class of the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College when it first opened its doors in 1999, who majored in an individually designed concentration of Law and Economics before going on to earn a JD at Georgetown University Law Center. Since then, Jennifer has worked for large international law firms and as in-house counsel at a Fortune 500 company before transitioning to the Brand Strategy team responsible for TV and Radio advertising. Jennifer is currently leading the company’s Private Brand growth strategies for Technology and Imaging Solutions, bringing innovative solutions and great value alternatives to consumers and businesses of all sizes. Jennifer says that none of this has been quite as challenging (or rewarding) as raising two awesome little girls with her husband, Mark.
�3Florida Atlantic University
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College October 16, 2014
Autumn Widdoes
’03 !
!!
!!!!!!!!!!!
Autumn hadn’t planned to attend the Honors College. However, she found herself on the MacArthur campus after receiving generous funding and discovering that the College “would allow its students to explore and create their own pathways in their studies and in their lives, while also providing …a firm intellectual foundation,” she says.#
Autumn graduated with a concentration in philosophy in 2003. While at the HC, she studied abroad in Vietnam, founded and served as artistic director of Theater in the Raw, and founded and organized a Writer-in-Residence program. She went on to receive her Masters in Performance Studies from New York University in 2007.#
Widdoes has lived and worked in Germany, England, Vietnam and Japan. She taught English and Cultural Studies to Japanese high school students with the JET (Japanese Teacher of English) Program for four years, worked as an administrative assistant in the finance industry, a project coordinator in the executive search industry, and as a web content writer and editor. She is proficient in German and has beginner-intermediate Japanese language skills.#
“…that closeness we felt as a community is what
made the HC experience
unforgettable.”
Today, Widdoes spends her free time creating dance theater films and live performance events. As the artistic director of TASK, a bilingual performance collective based in Okinawa, Japan, Autumn pulls from her background training in performance analysis, film theory, and her experience producing and curating film festivals and a literary and performance series. #
Even though Autumn hadn’t planned on attending the Honors College, she is grateful for the amazing experience. “The friends I met there are still some of the people I’m closest to and that closeness we felt as a community is what made the HC experience unforgettable,” she says.#!www.autumnwiddoes.wordpress.com
www.taskokinawa.wordpress.com
�4Florida Atlantic University
You are Invited to a Special Event
Tommy Zeichman ’09, Event Chair
For ticket and sponsor information, please contact Kat Yates @ 561.799.8105 or [email protected].
Tickets must be purchased in advance by December 12, 2014.
15th (Crystal)
Alumni ReunionSaturday,December 20, 2014Price per person: $25.00
Small Campus, Big Impact
Tag your social media posts related to this event as #whereitallbegan
Time: 6:00-8:30 p.m.Location: LLS Courtyard, Jupiter Lifelong Learning Center Courtyard 5353 Parkside Dr., Jupiter, FL 33458
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College October 16, 2014
Meet the Class of 2018! More than 105 new freshmen joined the Honors College this past August. Nearly all of the Class of 2018 was born in 1996, when the average price for a gallon of gas was $1.28 and Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” made it to the top of the Billboard Music Charts. The average weighted high school GPA of the incoming class ranges from 4.1-4.8. Students hail from more than 47 Florida High Schools, 12 states other than Florida, and 6 foreign countries. Every Wilkes Honors College admitted student received some form of merit award this year. #
Alexis Coican ‘18!Alexis comes to the Honors College from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is pursuing a concentration in biology, and is involved in the Marine Biology Club, the Environmental Club, and is volunteering for Homecoming 2014. Coican plans to study abroad in Germany and obtain an internship (hopefully in the D.C. area). Alexis plans to pursue a career as a clinical geneticist.
6Florida Atlantic University
Leah Turner ‘16
Turner hails from Wellington, Florida, where she graduated in 2009 and transferred to the HC this year. She chose the Honors College because “it had the freedom of New College with the structure of real grades. Being able to create my own major was a big draw for me.” Turner is also a Bigony Scholar, member of Bros Club, Spectrum, and founder of F.R.I.G.I.D.
“I’m excited to start my thesis because I love what I have in mind.
You will have to ask me what it is!” !
Turner concentrates in interdisciplinary sociology with history and women’s studies minors, and plans to become a professor and sociologist.
The Current Students#
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College October 16, 2014
Professor of Biology, Dr. Jon Moore If you’re not familiar with Dr. Moore, who joined the Honors College in 2000, he is an avid researcher, passionate instructor, and has done some amazing things this semester alone. His research focuses on the ecology, evolution and conservation of marine and terrestrial organisms and their habitats, including (but certainly not limited to) the ecology and conservation of gopher tortoises and their habitats; the ecology, systematics, and evolution of deep-sea fishes; and the ecology of seamounts.$
This semester, Dr. Moore has been interviewed by the Sun Sentinel about the manatee work that he is doing with students at the FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Campus (http://bit.ly/1xFCiLP), traveled to the Bear Seamount in the North Atlantic on a research expedition to examine deep-sea fishes and invertebrates on the NOAA ship Pisces (top), and took his entire Coral Reef Ecology class to the Oceans, Reefs and Aquariums (ORA) aquaculture hatchery at Harbor Branch and to the Smithsonian Marine Ecosystem Exhibit (bottom, at the Fort Pierce Inlet). $
The manatee research at Harbor Branch, which only a few Honors College students have worked on (most recently Claire Robinson of the class of 2014), involves photo identification of manatees based on their scar patterns, which is then provided to the Manatee Ind iv idua l Photo -Identification System (MIPS) database that is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, which Moore tells the Sentinel has over 2,000 recognized photo identification patterns. They’ve been able to identify 350 manatees from Harbor Branch in the last five years.
7Florida Atlantic University
Faculty Spotlight
