The Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement recently honored senior Civic Scholars during a special graduation toast. Over the past two years, the Civic Scholars Class of 2017 completed four semesters of academic course work, received multiple levels of mentorship, and developed substantial summer civic engagement projects. Like the 28 alumni Civic Scholars who have come before them, they acquired advanced civic leadership skills and demonstrate a significant commitment to civic engagement post-graduation. Learn more about their upcoming plans below.
- Nicholas Annin will be staying at Washington University to complete a one-year graduate program in corporate finance at the Olin Business School. He seeks to couple this degree with his environmental policy undergraduate degree and pursue a career in sustainable investing.
- Alexandra Barrett is studying Kiswahili with the Critical Language Scholarship in Arusha, Tanzania.
- Lucy Chin, Stern Family Civic Scholar, is leading middle and high school students through a service and outdoor education experience in Costa Rica this summer. She will then work in the Office of Student Success at Washington University, helping to coordinate outreach and programs for low-income students on campus. In the long term, Lucy hopes to pursue a dual course of study in social work and public interest law.
- Suhas Gondi, Dr. Margaret A. Olsen and Dr. Joseph N. Marcus Civic Scholar, is interning at a venture capital firm in San Francisco and focusing on healthcare services related investment opportunities. In August, he will spend quality time with family before matriculating at Harvard Medical School.
- Jacob Metz, Cantor Family Civic Scholar, is working with Gephardt Institute staff to research best practices in Community-Engaged Teaching. In July, he will join the Gephardt Institute’s St. Louis Urban Fellows Program. He will work full-time in St. Louis City Hall for ten months, with a focus on initiatives that advance city and regional priorities.
- Yaala Muller is moving to Little Rock, Arkansas to attend the University of Arkansas’s Clinton School of Public Service. She will pursue a Master of Public Service degree.
- Sarah Nesbitt moved to Austin, Texas and is working as a Public Policy Analyst at the Texas Council on Family Violence. Her position focuses on the ways in which victims and survivors of intimate partner violence interface with the civil and criminal legal systems.
- Sakura Oyama will begin a Master of Philosophy program in applied biological anthropology at Cambridge University. She received the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship.
- Norah Rast, Seiden Family Civic Scholar, is joining Washington University’s Office of the Provost. She will be working with the Provost’s Chief of Staff as a Project Manager.
- María José Ruiz, Stern Family Civic Scholar, received a Princeton in Latin America Fellowship and will be working in Guatemala over the next year as the Maternal and Infant Health Program Coordinator at Hospitalito Atitlán.
- Laken Sylvander is spending a gap year in St. Louis working as a teaching assistant for Design Thinking: An Approach to Problem Solving, a course for College Prep Program participants through Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. She is also preparing for applications to Juris Doctor and Master of Social Work degree programs.
- Neena Wang is taking a year to work and apply to graduate school programs.
Click here to learn more about the Civic Scholars Program and watch a video as the graduates reflect on their experiences in the classroom, the St. Louis community, and beyond.