1. education
2. alumni and reunions

Honors
DONORS
to the Honors Program
Thank you to our generous donors who made
The spring semester and early summer have been marked
gifts to support the UD Honors Program
by celebrations at the UD Honors Program. Early in the
from October 22, 2013 to May 1st, 2014:
semester, we celebrated the success of Honors students on
the UD “GTS Consulting” team as they won the national
PriceWaterhouseCoopers tax case competition (out of 567
teams!). Later in the semester the UD Mock Trial Team,
led by several Honors students, was so successful (with
victories over teams from places like Harvard and Yale),
that it was selected to host the American Mock
Trial Association regional tournament.
We celebrated two Fulbright scholars, two Goldwater
Scholars, and the winners of the UD Warner and Taylor
awards (for the outstanding male and female graduating
seniors, see below). Speaking of graduation, on May 30th
we awarded the largest number of Honors Degrees and
Honors Degrees with Distinction ever: 246 Honors
Degrees and 65 Honors Degrees with Distinction!
A week later we welcomed the largest crowd of alumni
to ever attend our Honors Program Alumni Weekend
reception (and UD welcomed record crowds to Alumni
Weekend overall). It was great to see so many of you back
on campus. I hope we’ll set another record next year and
that you will join us in celebrating the Honors Program
at UD!
Alumni
Weekend
2014
Dr. Michael Arnold, Director
University Honors Program
Mentors Needed!
The Honors Program is looking for alumni mentors.
Applications are available online and due September 20th
to participate in this academic year. Make a difference in
the life of a current Honors student both personally and
professionally. Honors Alumni Mentors can give career advice,
provide assistance with preparation and decisions about graduate programs and prestigious
scholarships, and share their life and work experiences. The mentoring cycle lasts one
academic year (October-May) with mentor and mentee contact at least once a month.
For more information, please see www.udel.edu/honors/mentoring. Students will apply
for a mentor when they return to campus at the beginning of the fall semester, and mentor/
mentee pairs will be announced in October.
As one mentee says, “The first time I met with my mentor, we were both extraordinarily
surprised by how much we had in common, both throughout our undergraduate
2014 Warner and Taylor Award Winners Brie Gerry and Ryan Leonard.
experience and our post-graduate interests. Even though we met just a few times, he
was an invaluable resource in terms of giving advice regarding networking, requesting
informational interviews, and general post graduate planning. I know that we will keep in
touch even after the mentoring program is over!”
Thank you to last year’s Mentors!
Thank you
With your support, the Honors Program is able to provide
even more resources and opportunities for our students:
• I ndividual enrichment awards for special opportunities
outside the classroom
•C
ourse enrichment funds for Honors sections
• Funding for Honors service learning and study abroad trips
Honors Study Break
Editors: Kristin Bennighoff,
Kevin Liedel, Christine Schultz
Writer: Mary Kate Reilly
ART DIRECTOR: Christian Derr
Printer: University Printing
Honors Program
www.udel.edu/honors
honorsprogram@udel.edu
The University of Delaware does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex,
disability, religion, age, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation in
its employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions as required by Title IX of
the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Section 504
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and other applicable
statutes and University policies. The University of Delaware prohibits sexual harassment,
including sexual violence. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to: Susan L. Groff, Ed.
D., Director, Institutional Equity & Title IX Coordinator, 305 Hullihen Hall, Newark, DE 19716,
(302) 831-3666. For complaints related to Section 504of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, please
contact: Anne L. Jannarone, M.Ed., Ed.S., Director, Office of Disability Support Services, Alison
Hall, Suite 130, Newark, DE 19716, (302) 831-4643 OR contact the U.S. Department of Education
- Office for Civil Rights (https://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/CFAPPS/OCR/contactus.cfm). 07/14
Making a gift to the Honors Program is simple. Visit
www.udel.edu/makeagift to use our secure, online giving
form. Allocate your gift to the “Honors Program” in
the “Other” box.
Alternatively, you may send a check to the Office of
Annual Giving, University of Delaware, 83 E Main Street,
3rd Floor, Newark, DE 19716. Please write “Honors
Program” on the memo line of your check.
If you have donated and your name does not appear
(right) or if you would like your name listed differently,
please send an email to honorsprogram@udel.edu.
Paul Agostini and Rosana M. Gonzalez
Sandra Gant Ambrose
Avi A. Amon
Jessica S. Applebaum
Michael A. and Charlotte C. Arnold
David J. Barsky
Valeria E. Beasley
Cris M. Bennighoff and
Kristin Serensits Bennighoff
Lisa M. Blazejewski
Giovanna Citti Bolsvert
Thomas B. Boutell and Roberta S. Petusky
Betty L. Bridges
Alaina M. Brown
Robert F. and Mary Ann Brown
Ann K. Charles
Ryan M. Clemens and Amy L. Baker
Laura A. Cohen
Meghan Martin Comegys and Rodney Comegys
Sharon Stachecki Conslato
Joseph A. D’Agostino
Mary W. D’Agostino
Julia M. Deegan
Norman S. and Bonnie W. Dick
Mary C. Digel
Vincent A. D’Ippolito Jr.
Christy Prilutski Dorris and William P. Dorris
Andrea Klocko Doyle
Ernest Dun and Huiying Yang
Brittany C. Enslin
Erin J. Finehout
Beth W. Gale
Katie M. Galgano
Sarah L. Georger
Brielle Gerry
Sabrina C. Glaser and Mark S. Cho
Mary Betines Gracey
Paul and Carol J. Hains
Thomas P. and Cheryl L. Hannan
Ruby J. Harrington
Gretchen Hertzog-Mahar
Lauren M. Huston
Staci Levin Julie and Richard S. Julie
Alan I. Katz and Susan Strzalkowski Katz
Katharine Carter Kerrane and Kevin J. Kerrane
Julia I. Kohen
Victoria J. Kopec
Max L. Kramer
Kathryn S. LaPrad
Courtney M. Long
Travis R. Longcore
Jama Allegretto Lynch and Tom Lynch
Robert J. and Rosemary Manning
David L. Margalit and Nicole Raymond Margalit
Craig F. and Lisa Maylath
Richard W. McClain and Patricia Cordes
McClain
D. Betsy McCoach
Jennifer H. McCord
David S. Meale
Martin T. Mitchell
Brad A. Molotsky and Ellen Barcan Molotsky
Kelly A. Moltzen
Karen Jacobs Monti and Louis A. Monti
R. Scott Moore and Patricia Olson Moore
James L. Nungesser and Deborah Smith
Nungesser
Kisha E. Oister
James C. O’Leary
Diane W. Osborn
Deanna M. Palma
Margaret Dearborn Pasquerella and Robert T.
Pasquerella
Raymond I. Peters III and Susan Jolley Peters
Gerald A. and Merrill A. Poliak
Eric M. Pridgen and Wenny Lin
Paul S. Puccio
Mariah D. Russell
Richard S. and Peggy D. Sacher
Ami R. Schiess
Christine Lawson Schultz and David J. Schultz
Patricia Hanigan Scroggs
Gary F. Smith Jr. and Tamara Legutko Smith
Michael C. Smith
Cheryl Smith-Lintner and Benjamin R. Lintner
Thomas W. Staley
Andrew T. Stamps and Meghann Kreiger Stamps
Matthew T. Stone
Daniel J. and Judith C. Stuart
Kevin Sun
Mary Sikra Thomas and Stephen A. Thomas
Rajesh Tuli
Vanguard Group Foundation
Karen Kolaetis Wagner
Dean F. Walton Jr. and Sandra C. Northrup
Kenneth B. Weinstein
William A. Wildhack III
Darryl S. Williams
Emma M. Williford
Jeffrey R. Wolters and Karen Wallace Wolters
Michelle Shapiro Zack
Joseph M. Zarraga
Daniel E. Zelac
Honors
ISSUE 4 | AUGUST 2014
Student Feature
Public Policy Students Make a Difference
bring them abroad to build
schools in developing countries.
She founded UD’s buildOn
chapter in September and, over
the course of just one year, was
able to raise $30,000 to travel
to Nicaragua and build a school
there this summer.
Liz Burland (back row, center) pictured with her UD buildOn members during a visit from
buildON founder Jim Ziolkowski.
The experience from buildOn,
along with graduate coursework
in public policy and acceptance
into the Legislative Fellows
program, contributed to Liz
being selected as a 2014 Truman
Scholarship finalist.
Next year, Liz and the rest of
Elizabeth Burland (AS ’15) was undecided when she
the
buildOn
chapter
hope to engage even more UD
arrived at UD from her home state of Connecticut,
students
in
education-related
service in the Newark
but one Intro to Public Policy class changed everything.
area
while
also
fundraising
to
build a school in
“I’ve always been interested in poverty and public
Africa.
“I
know
that
everyone’s
not going to be equal
service,” Liz, now a Public Policy major, explains. “I
in
society
but
everyone
deserves
a chance,” she states.
quickly realized I have the skill set to work on policy
“Education
is
the
best
way
to
ensure
that happens.”
and that’s a way I can really make a difference.”
Liz’s enthusiasm for service and education policy
led her to a job in Summer 2013 with buildOn, a
non-profit that works to break cycles of poverty
and illiteracy through educational after-school
programs. Liz notes that buildOn creates servicelearning curricula to engage students at home and
When he first arrived in Washington D.C. in January
2013, Mark Rucci (AS ’15) admits that he was in awe.
Mark, a Public Policy major in the 4+1 Program,
spent that Winter Session evaluating Race to the
Top grants and assisting with the Teacher Quality
Enhancement Program. “I had pictured everyone in
those buildings filled with passion, but it was actually
very bureaucratic,” Mark says. “It solidified for
me that if you want to have passion for helping
kids, you need to be as close to them as possible.”
As a recipient of
a 2014 Plastino
Scholarship, Mark
has developed a
proposal for the
School Nutritional
Awareness
Consortium
(SNAC), a group
of faculty, staff,
students, and
parents that will
create policy
initiatives to offer public school students better,
healthier meal options. He will spend his
summer travelling to schools across the U.S. to
study the National School Lunch Program and
its negative effects on low-income and minority
students. Mark’s research will be used to adjust
the existing school nutrition program in the
Wildwood School District in his home state of
New Jersey. Mark notes that public education
worked for him, but that disparities still exist
between neighboring districts. His goal is
for schools to adopt SNAC and provide free
breakfast and lunch for their students.
Patty Cordes McClain & Rick McClain
Rick (AS ‘04) and Patty (AS & BE, ‘04) met at the
beginning of their freshman year, when they
both lived on the second floor of Russell A.
“Throughout our years at UD, we went on several
trips sponsored by the Honors Program and
made great memories,” Patti says. “Ten years after
graduation we’re still in close contact with many
friends from the UD Honors Program.”
Want to be featured? Email honorsprogram@udel.edu
with “Honors Double Dels” as the subject line.
Alum Feature
Paging Doctor Brown
After attending an admitted students weekend,
Alaina Brown (AS ’04) knew that she was more
than just a number to the Honors Program. “I
was a student that they really want to come to
UD,” she says. Under the guidance of exceptional
Honors professors like Dr. Munson and Dr. Groh,
During her first year at UVA, she became involved
with the Charlottesville Free Clinic, a center that
provides medical care for uninsured adults who
are unable to qualify for low-income healthcare.
in undergraduate research.
year and make an impact as a practicing member of
Clinic have no other options for health care,”
the medical staff.
Brown explains, “but I have never met more
interest in
Throughout medical school, residency, and her
medicine
career as a pediatrician in Charlottesville, VA,
became
favorite Munson memory after reading
a calling
the first edition of this very newsletter!
during her
“I started in the Honors Program in 1979
sophomore
and remember Dr. Munson’s study break
year at UD
well. I didn’t realize that we were the
when she
guinea pigs though, until I read the part
served as
in the newsletter that said it all began in
counselor at
fall of 1979. That was us! We all looked
Camp Fantastic, a camp for children with cancer
forward to it, but I don’t remember there
in Virginia. The children at Camp Fantastic taught
ever being any broccoli, cauliflower or
Brown a great deal about adolescent resiliency and
carrots; that must have all come later.
she found herself truly inspired by “the fighting
Back in the day, I distinctly remember
spirit of children with terminal illnesses.”
thankful people. I plan to continue to use my
skills to help those who are underserved.”
Her growing passion for pediatrics only
To experience more Dr. Munson, check
intensified during her time at the University of
out this video with his advice to incoming
Virginia School of Medicine. “Pediatrics was
Classroom Sneak Peek:
freshmen: http://vimeo.com/74109483
my first rotation and I found that I didn’t like
Introduction to Sociology
any other rotation after that one,” she says. “I
Illustration by Jeffrey Chase AS’91
of the disadvantaged in her community.
a UD student, Brown was finally able to return this “Many of the patients that are served by the Free
Christopher Naro (EG ’83) recalled his
Have an Honors Story to Share for Munson’s
Corner? Email honorsprogram@udel.edu
with “Munson’s Corner” as the subject line.
Brown has made an effort to meet the needs
Brown developed a love for chemistry and engaged
Brown’s
the favorite being M&M’s!”
“I loved practicing preventative
medicine, watching families grow, and
the ability of kids to bounce back from
serious illness in ways adults never do.”
loved practicing preventative medicine, watching
families grow, and the ability of kids to bounce
back from serious illness in ways adults never
do.” Though she has volunteered as a counselor at
Camp Fantastic several times since her first trip as
In Victor Perez’s Introduction to Sociology class, students visit
IKEA to explore the complex relationship between the individual
and society. “Students get to embody critical sociological theory by
resisting the IKEA model and its predictability and control,” says
Perez, “and simultaneously counter the dehumanization that its
rational, mass consumption model imposes on the customer.”