Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

Sarah Fern, Outstanding Graduate in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will graduate with honors in systems science and engineering May 20 and already has secured a job as a business technology analyst. But she also plays piano, and, is “as talented as many students that you’ll find at a conservatory,” says Seth Carlin, professor of music, director of the piano program in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and Fern’s piano teacher. 

Jessica Davie, one of the Record’s three Outstanding Graduates in the College of Arts & Sciences, took her experiences as an inner-city high school student and began a program called Learning to Live at WUSTL. She graduates May 20 with a degree in educational studies with a minor in drama from the College of Arts & Sciences, but the Learning to Live program endures.

Steven Perlberg, a sophomore in Arts & Sciences, and other students from the “Just Do It! Turning Your Passion into Policy” class at Washington University answer questions from John Hancock, former head of the Missouri Republican Party in the St. Louis County Council Chambers in Clayton, Mo., May 2. The students offered mock testimony on a range of issues from puppy mills to local control of the city police force to a group of civic leaders posing as a committee of the Missouri Senate.

From organizing a kitchen that prepares weekly meals for underserved populations in St. Louis to providing private music instruction to under-resourced youth in the area, the five outstanding individuals who received Washington University’s 2011 Gerry and Bob Virgil Ethic of Service Award exemplify a character of service and giving to the St. Louis region.

Ravi Chockalingam, MD, will take what he has learned as a member of WUSTL’s inaugural Master of Public Health Program in the Brown School and apply it to public health programs locally, in his native India, and beyond. At the Brown School, Chockalingam worked his community health care worker model into his class work.

Richard J. Smith, PhD (left), dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, visits with Arts & Sciences PhD student Rajbir Purewal and other teaching assistants after he presented them with the Arts & Sciences’ Graduate Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence during an April 25 ceremony in the Danforth University Center. The award recognizes exemplary performance by graduate teaching assistants.

Tim Bono, who will receive his doctorate in psychology at the May 20 Commencement, could very well be the model of an engaged WUSTL student as both an undergraduate and a graduate student. He has served the university in a myriad of roles, including most notably as the graduate student representative to the Board of Trustees and to the search committee for the dean of Arts & Sciences.

Sports updates for the week of May 2, 2011.

Tennis legend and women’s rights activist Billie Jean King (center) chats with WUSTL women’s tennis team members April 21 in the Knight Center. King was on campus, along with Ilana Kloss, former professional tennis player and CEO of World Team Tennis, to address students in the Olin Business School course on sports management.

As the Brittany Woods-WUSTL partnership develops, programs that address students’ values, motivation, and attitudes are joining those that focus on academic subjects. Schools that combine academics with programs that support social development and healthy families are called community schools.