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Leah Merrifield, associate vice chancellor for community engagement and St. Louis college readiness initiatives at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected to serve as a mentor at the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival March 5-8 in Austin, Texas. The event is devoted to advancing teaching and learning.

Applications are now open for the 2018 Global Impact Award (GIA), Washington University in St. Louis’ business plan competition for ventures that are scalable, sustainable and quick-to-market with proof of concept and a broad impact. The deadline is noon March 19.

Kater Murch, assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named a 2018 Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement.

To ensure broad communication, certain key university policies are published annually in The Record. These policies are intended to promote and support a positive working and learning environment. The policies also are available on the Human Resources website.

Clinical psychologist and author Meg Jay will be the keynote speaker for Washington University’s fourth annual Day of Discovery & Dialogue. Jay’s talk, “The Untold Story of Adversity and Resilience,” will take place Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Medical Campus. Registration is strongly encouraged.

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the novel “Frankenstein,” the university is hosting a student competition. The prompt for the challenge is “The New Frankenstein,” and students can enter written or visual works. The submission deadline is Oct. 15, and winners will receive up to a $1,000 prize.

Jessie Lee, a member of the First Year Center executive board, is one of five students nationwide to win the Jordan Smith Undergraduate Fellowship from the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina. Lee will be formally recognized Monday, Feb. 12.

Aimee James, associate professor of surgery in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been appointed the Prevention and Control Research Program co-leader for Siteman Cancer Center. 

A number of people with connections to Washington University in St. Louis were named fellows of the New Leaders Council Institute, which works to promote progressive thought leadership among millennials. They include two Brown School students, two staff members and five alumni. 

I teach a course called “Social Justice & Human Diversity” for mostly first-year social work master’s students. It’s been my contention that in order to understand these broad topics, my students must confront history in ways that complicate common narratives about this nation and the broader world, including contradictions between espoused values and actual outcomes for marginalized individuals and groups.