Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

Earning a master’s of business administration degree from Olin Business School is challenging. Having your education interrupted to serve your country in Iraq makes that challenge even more insurmountable. But Hugh Tychsen has met the obstacles head on, and will receive his MBA at the May 20 Commencement.

In the graphics art world, Natalie Sklobovskaya is that rare commodity — a triple threat. Sklobovskaya is not only a driven illustrator, but she also enjoys computer programing, writing and playing music, and creating websites. Those talents enable a nice collision of creativity that have allowed her to draw comics, animate them, score a soundtrack and upload them to a website she designed.She’ll graduate May 20 with a double major in communication design and computer science.

Under Secretary of the Army Joseph W. Westphal, PhD, was on hand as 17 members of the Gateway Battalion, St. Louis’ Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) based at Washington University, were commissioned as new Army officers. The class of 17 cadets from area universities, including seven from WUSTL, received their two gold bars and took an oath of office during the 93rd annual Gateway Battalion Army ROTC Commissioning Ceremony, held May 13 at Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center. 

Sports updates for the week of May 16, 2011.

Chike Croslin, a graduating Arts & Sciences senior at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the Alumni and Friends of the London School of Economics Scholarship for 2011-12. The academic merit scholarship, given annually to an American citizen or permanent resident of the United States, covers full tuition fees for one year of graduate study at the London School of Economics. Croslin, a political science major with a minor in institutional social analysis, both in Arts & Sciences, will graduate from WUSTL May 20.

Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD, dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science checks out the hand glider designed and built by Fort Zumwalt West students during the Boeing Engineering Challenge May 6 at the Athletic Complex. About 180 high school students from 10 area school districts launched hand gliders from the Field House balcony in a competition to determine which has the farthest flight, the straightest path, the longest hang time and highest quality of flight.

Commencement week begins with a variety of celebrations and ceremonies designed to warmly send Washington University in St. Louis’ Class of 2011 out into the world. First up: The Chancellor’s Dinner to Honor Graduating Seniors at 6 p.m. Monday, May 16. More than 1,200 are expected at America’s Center ballroom as Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and the WUSTL community celebrates the accomplishments of the class and acknowledges its positive impact.

Within a year of starting classes at WUSTL, Kirsten Siebach, Outstanding Graduate in the College of Arts & Sciences, became the youngest member of the Phoenix Mars Lander science team in Tucson, Ariz. She’ll graduate May 20 with a double major in earth and planetary sciences and chemistry and a minor in English.

Architecture is a global profession. Just ask Aaron Plewke, who will receive his master’s degree May 20 from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. In recent months, Plewke, a Danforth Scholar in the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, and his fiance, fellow graduate student Meredith Klein, have designed and managed construction of WUSTL’s new East Asian Study Center in Shanghai — all from their studios in Givens Hall.

WUSTL’s first all-campus food drive set a cash donation record and collected nearly 3 tons of food, much of which will go to the 135,000 St. Louis-area children at risk for hunger this summer. “This amount from the Washington University PB&Joy Food Drive was the second-largest amount collected in the virtual food drive’s five-year history,” says Gary Wells, Operation Food Search general manger.