Zillman Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships

Lauren LeVoir is a sophomore majoring in Computer Sciences and Information Science.

Josh Baston is a junior majoring in Materials Science and Engineering.

Due to the continuing COVID Pandemic, there were no Zillman applications for the summer of 2022. We hope you consider applying in Summer of 2023.

Jordan DeWester is a senior majoring in Tuba Performance.

Ariel Borns is a PhD student in the Department of Educational Policy Studies. 

Ann Kim is a PhD student in the English Department.

Brett Nachman is pursuing a PhD in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis.

Nikhil Tiwari is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum & Instruction.

Rachelle Wilson is a PhD student in the Spanish Department.

2019 Zillman Fellows – L to R: Esther Bettney; Elizabeth Neary; Justyn Huckleberry; Luquant Singh; Tarsha Herelle; Hunter Gage;
Ryan Brown; Claire Evensen

Esther Bettney is a PhD student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her current research focuses on how to incorporate multilingual approaches to bilingual education. This summer, with the support of the Zillman Summer Research Fellowship, Esther will travel to Colombia to conduct a pilot study about a bilingual school that is currently negotiating how to move toward more expansive multilingual approaches to their bilingual program.

Ryan Brown is a junior majoring in genetics and genomics with a minor in computer science. Ryan is interested in pursuing an MD/PhD in order to perform cancer research and treat patients. This summer he will be researching the applications of regenerative medicine in treating degenerative lung disease at the University of Cambridge.

Claire Evensen is a junior double majoring in biochemistry and applied math. This summer she will be combining these interests by conducting research at the Wolfson Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Oxford. claire will be using reaction-diffusion differential equations to model neural crest embryonic development.

Regina Fuller is a doctoral candidate in educational policy studies. Her Zillman summer project includes an internship at the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) office on sexuality education and research on comprehensive sexuality education policy at the United Nations and other international organizations.

Hunter Gage is a junior majoring in biology with a certificate in the biology core honors curriculum. His research studies the process of germination in fungal pathogens. This summer he will be studying at the University of Cambridge conducting research in a pathology lab that studies the biology of the malaria-causing Plasmodium parasite.

Tarsha Herelle is a doctoral student in educational policy studies. Her summer research will bring her to Porto Alegre, Brazil to examine how Afro-Brazilian women navigate their social, cultural and occupational identities within university workplaces.

Justyn Huckleberry is an environment & resources PhD student in the Nelson Institute. This summer, with the help of the Zillman Summer Research Award, she will travel to Botswana to study the political ecology of community displacement and the impacts of material land use changes.

Elizabeth Neary is a doctoral student studying early modern Iberian literature. Her research interests include literary and visual representations of gender and sexuality and cultural exchanges between Christians and Muslins on the Iberian Peninsula. This summer she will carry out a literary and archival research project in Madrid and Seville Spain exploring interreligious marriage on the early modern Iberian Peninsula.

Luquant Singh, a junior majoring in applied math, engineering & physics, will be using his Zillman Summer Research Fellowship in collaboration with the Princeton plasma physics theory department to write a novel marchine design code for fusion reactors. This code will speed up the current machine design and enable investigaions into additional design parameters.

From left to right: Sarah Thimmesch, Sarah Dyke, Jessie Nixon, Giselle Martinez Negrette, Morgan Smallwood.  Not pictured: Mackenzie Berry, Nicole Stephan

Mackenzie Berry is a junior majoring in English with a certificate in Afro-American Studies. She used the Zillman Summer Research Award to archive stories from rural Kentucky through a podcast called “Word to Wellness: Health Access in Kentucky from Smoketown to Jackson.”

Sarah Dyke is a junior majoring in Biochemistry and French. As a Zillman Fellow she used her award to participate in the Summer Cambridge and Oxford Research Experience (SCORE) program in England where she engaged in laboratory research.

Jessie Nixon is a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction. Thanks in part to the Zillman Fellowship, she worked at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Green Bay researching youth critique practices of digital texts.

Giselle Martinez Negrette is a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction. Her Zillman summer research involved the examination of how emergent bilinguals in cross-national contexts (Midwest US and Auckland, New Zealand) negotiate their language use, and how they are positioned by issues of race in bilingual/immersion programs.

Morgan Smallwood is a doctoral student at the School of Human Ecology studying Civil Society and Community Research. She traveled to Egypt to conduct preliminary fieldwork exploring a decades old partnership between a church in Alexandria, Egypt and a church in Madison, WI.

Nicole Stephan is an undergraduate senior majoring in Molecular Biology with certificates in Global Health and Environmental Science.  With the help of the Zillman Summer Research Award, she interned at the Center for Studies of Sensory Impairment, Aging and Metabolism in Guatemala.

Sarah Thimmesch is a junior majoring in Biochemistry and Spanish. With the Zillman Summer Research Award she participated in the Summer Cambridge and Oxford Research Experience (SCORE) program this summer at Oxford University.

From left to right: Jer Weann Ang, President Wyl Schuth, Leah Kang, Gabrielle Reisz

Jer Weann Ang received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in genetics with a certificate in studio art. Over the summer, with the help of a Zillman Summer Research Fellowship, Jer Weann conducted research in Dr. Detlev Arendt’s group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. There she will be studied the evolution of cell types in the brain and nervous system using the marine annelid worm Platynereis Dumerilii as an animal model.

Leah Kang received the Zillman Award as a doctoral candidate in piano performance at UW-Madison. Her dissertation examines the chamber music arrangements of Beethoven symphonies as created by his contemporaries.  Over the summer she traveled to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn and Staatsbibliothek in Berlin to study some of these rare scores and conduct archival research in hopes of publishing a critical edition of select works as well as making a recording.

Gabrielle Reisz received the Zillman Award while pursuing a master’s degree in the School of Human Ecology’s Civil Society and Community Research Department. Since 2010, she has conducted in-depth qualitative and quantitative research on community-based organizations called neighbourhood houses in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.  Over the summer she was able to travel back to Canada to continue her research and archival project thanks in part to the Zillman Summer Research Award.

Will Porter, Isaac Garcia- Guerrero, Alexander Koo, Laura Hammon, Hannah Mast, President Morton Gernsbacher 

Isaac Garcia-Guerrero received the Zillman Award as a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.  His dissertation research includes European fin-de-siècle literature and visual culture in relation to oriental representations of the Mediterranean. For his summer research, Isaac traveled to Valencia, Spain, where he was able to research the native writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.

Laura Hamman received the Zillman Award as a Ph.D. student in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in ESL and bilingual education. Her research is at the intersection of education, applied linguistics, and literacy studies.  Laura’s Zillman summer research, in Sayulita, Mexico, provided an international lens on the interactional dynamics within bilingual classrooms.

Alexander Koo received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in pharmacology & toxicology. Over the summer of 2016 Alex participated in full-time research at the University of Oxford in the lab of Petros Ligoxygakis. He worked with Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, in order to develop it as a model for better understanding the interactions of pathogens with an innate immune system, with hopes of applying the model to other insects, and possibly humans.

Hannah Mast received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in biochemistry. She has previously researched the spliceosome and pre-mRNA processing in the Hoskins biochemistry laboratory. With support from the Zillman Summer Research Award,  Hannah was able to research non-coding RNAs at the University of Cambridge in Eric Miska’s laboratory.

Will Porter received the Zillman Award while pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in trombone performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Will’s doctoral research is concerned with looking at the relationship between classical music education and social development. Over the summer, supported by the Zillman Summer research Award, he traveled to Mozambique to work with the Xiquitsi Project in Maputo. The Xiquitsi Project is an orchestral training program based on Venezuela’s El Sistema model, and aims to help bring about social change in poorer communities through access to music education.

Antia Gonzalez Ben, Allison Perlin, Meg Healy, President Morton Gernsbacher, Ryan Prestil And Katherine Robiadek

Antía Gonzalez Ben received the Zillman Award as a second year Ph.D. student in curriculum and instruction, Music Education, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Due in part to the Zillman Summer Research Award, Antía was able to conduct preliminary archival fieldwork in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. She examined primary and secondary sources that engage with the notion of creativity in the field of education.​

Meg Healy received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in geography and political science. Her senior honors thesis investigates processes of forced eviction of favela residents in Rio de Janeiro in preparation for the 2016 Olympics. Over the summer of 2015 she returned to Rio to continue researching the effects of mega events on municipal housing policy.

Allison Perlin received the Zillman Award as a senior with a double major in political science and international human rights, and a certificate in modern dance. Allison’s senior honors dual degree thesis was on the relationship between post-genocide reconstruction and trauma. With the Zillman Summer Research Award, Allison had the opportunity to intern with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Office of the Prosecutor at the Hague.

Ryan Prestil received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in neurobiology and mathematics. In the summer of 2015, he worked in the Arendt Group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. There he used a marine worm model of the last common ancestor of vertebrates, insects, and other bilateral animals to investigate the organization of neural cell types in the developing nervous system.

Katherine Robiadek received the Zillman Award while completing a doctoral degree in political theory in the Department of Political Science. Her dissertation focuses on the concept of sovereignty in early modern political thought.  Her summer research involved rigorous methods training at the 2015 London Summer School in Intellectual History, where she also presented her research for feedback by experts in her discipline.

Drew Birrenkott, Joanna Lawrence, Tobias Lunt, Rebecca Reese, Alice Wei

Drew Birrenkott received the Zillman Award as a fifth year senior with majors in biomedical engineering, biochemistry, and political science. With the Zillman Award, Drew was able to travel to Chennai, India to implement the CaRe Monitor he designed along with four other BME students for their BME design course. The CaRe Monitor is a cardiorespiratory monitor designed specifically to monitor the heart and respiration rates of infants at risk for apnea in developing countries.

Joanna Lawrence received the Zillman Award as a senior studying archaeology. Over the summer she participated in the 4-week excavation of the Bronze-Age in Hungary. Joanna had the opportunity to assist with the continued uncovering of this ancient site, practicing valuable excavation techniques and gaining further knowledge in her primary area of interest: the daily lives and identities of Bronze Age Europeans.

Tobias Lunt received the Zillman Award while pursuing a joint MS in agroecology and plant pathology. Over the summer, he traveled to Ethiopia to build on an existing effort to investigate food security levels in communities in the southwest region of the country. The project introduced a novel orange-fleshed sweet potato variety to smallholder farmers to improve agronomic output, improve caloric intake at the household level, and reduce incidence of vitamin-A malnutrition.

Brontë Mansfield received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in art history and English, with an emphasis in nineteenth-century art and literature. Over the summer, she used the generous funds from the Zillman Award to support her research for her senior honors thesis and travel to London. There, Brontë investigated Victorian depictions of mermaids and their relationship to contemporary Darwinian theories of evolution.

Rebecca Reese received the Zillman Award as a junior studying genetics. Over the summer she traveled to the University of Oxford through the UW-Madison SCORE program. There she had the opportunity to intern in a lab for eight weeks studying developmental epigenetics.

Akshay Sarathi received the Zillman Award as a graduate student in the department of Anthropology. His research interests include the development of seafaring technology on the East African coast c. 20,000 years ago and in recording the material culture of fast-disappearing traditional fishing communities in the same region. He used his Zillman Award to travel to Tanzania over the summer where he surveyed archaeological sites to evaluate their suitability for excavation.

Alice Wei received the Zillman Award as a junior pursuing a major in medical microbiology and immunology as well as certificates in African studies and global health. Over the summer of 2014, she worked as a public health research intern at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Her work encompassed clinical, epidemiological, and community-based research on pediatric allergies and asthma.

Emily Lingeman, Geoffrey Ludvik, Jessica L’Roe and Rachel Silver

Emily Lingeman received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in biochemistry.  For her summer research she participated in the Summer Oxford and Cambridge Research Experience (SCORE), a program associated with the UW-Madison’s Department of Biochemistry.

Geoffrey Ludvik, received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in anthropology at the UW. Over the summer he was able to participate in an archaeological research project in the Eastern Mediterranean. His research focused on dating stone beads based upon the technology used in drilling the bead.

Jessica L’Roe received the Zillman Award as a graduate student in geography. For summer research Jessica traveled to Brazil to study the soy moratorium and G4 Cattle Agreement and their impact on deforestation in the Amazon.

Rachel Silver received the Zillman Award as a graduate student in anthropology. With the award she was able to travel to Malawi to visit the refugee camp at Dzaleka. She interviewed the first graduating class of a distance-learning higher education initiative, in the hope of establishing a relationship with the refugees and with the group directing this initiative.

Jason Nu, Daniel Kim and Molly Layde

Jun-Jei (Jason) Nu received the Zillman Award as a PhD student in the geography department. With the award he conducted site analysis research on urban development projects in Barcelona and London associated with hosting the Olympic Games. More specifically, Jason is interested in learning more about planning strategies and techniques used to produce a sense of physical security and social exclusivity in these developed zones.

Daniel Kim received the Zillman Award as a PhD student in the history department.  Daniel used the award to offset the costs of volunteering for four weeks as the principle lecturer at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in Yanji, China, a city near the border of North Korea. While teaching a sizable Korean ethnic minority, he was able to gain a better understanding of the intricate Chinese-North Korean relations in Yanji.

Mary Layde received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in nursing and public health.  She spent her summer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Nairobi, Kenya. There, she participated in an eleven-week internship focused on research and field experience addressing important infectious diseases, maternal and child health, and injury prevention issues affecting the Global South.

Janelle Bentley received the Zillman Award as junior majoring in dance. This gave her the opportunity to participate in a three-week summer dance intensive workshop in New York with the renowned Doug Varone Company. This program focuses on Pilates, composition, performance techniques, contemporary techniques, and performance repertory.

Shahzad Chindhy received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in biochemistry and psychology.  Over the summer he participated in the Summer Oxford and Cambridge Research Experience (SCORE), a program associated with UW-Madison’s Department of Biochemistry. He conducted full-time research in biochemistry under the direction of a faculty member and work as part of a research team.

John McCrone received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in biochemistry.  The Zillman Award helped offset the costs of volunteering with the School of St. Francis in San Jose El Tesoro, Guatemala. There taught English and math at an impoverished local grade school.

Benjamin Seeger received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in violin performance and mathematics with a certificate in computer science. He spent his Zillman summer at the world renowned Meadowmount School of Music in New York. There, he participated in a seven-week program for accomplished musicians in a quiet mountain setting.

Jess Senjem received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in anthropology and Spanish. Over the summer she traveled to South Africa, where she will assisted UW-Madison Professor Travis Pickering in excavation and research at the cave site of Swartkrans.

Alison Kolb received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in elementary education and history with a certificate in African Studies. With the help of the Zillman Award she was able to teach over the summer in Arusha, Tanzania.

Dana Bellissimo received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in biochemistry.  She spent her summer at the University of Cambridge working with zebrafish to determine how genetic changes in novel platelet membranes affect the ability of platelets to form blood clots. Dana worked at the world-renowned Sanger Institute under the direction of Dr. Willem Ouwehand.

William Marx received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in classics and history. He had the opportunity to travel to Berlin Germany to take a four-week intensive German language course at the Geothe Institute. His studies at the institute prepared him to read German scholarship on events related to his senior thesis.

Tiffany Nordahl received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in elementary education and Spanish.  Over the summer she traveled to Comayagua, Honduras, where she taught English as an intern with Providence World Ministries.

Jess Senjem received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in anthropology and Spanish.  With the award she was able to travel to Turkey to conduct research at the archaeological site of Troy. While there, she had the opportunity to engage in hands-on research of the skeletons recovered at Troy.

Brenna Knaebe received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in zoology.  She was able to travel to the southern Yunnan Province of China to investigate male competition in frogs. Brenna had the  opportunity to learn specifically about tree frogs and rice frogs, and will study how each competes for habitat for breeding.

Chelsea Lauing received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in music education.  The award allowed Chelsea to participate in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Florence Summer Music Program. While there, she had the opportunity to be a solo performer and engaged in choral conducting.

Dayton Opel received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in medical microbiology.  Dayton traveled to Seattle, Washington, where he participated in a medical observership at the Seattle Children’s Hospital Division of Emergency Medicine.

Claire Rydell received the Zillman Award as a junior with a classics and history major. With the award, she was able to travel to Freiburg, Germany to participate in an intensive German language and culture course.

Anna Rockwell received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Italian.  With the award she was able to travel to Paris, where she will studied French at the Sorbonne. There, Anna was able to gain expertise in French in order to study the relationship between the French and Italian literary traditions.

Karyn Tjaden received the Zillman Award as a senior double majoring in sociology and international studies.  She traveled to Kenya, where she studied the attitudes of the elderly Luo population toward the changes in Kenya since Independence.

Alexander Zarley received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in classics and classical humanities. He had the opportunity to explore archeology by joining a team from Simon Fraser University in British Colombia at Petra, Jordan. There, he will excavated a bath and garden complex, attended lectures, and gained hands-on experience.

Molly Sauerbry, Claire-Marie Hefner, Joel Charles, Katrina Brummer, Todd Brogan

Todd Brogan received the Zillman Award as a third-year communication science and rhetoric student.  He used the award to intern with the Baha’i International Community in New York City, and research the role that this and other religious nongovernmental organizations play at the United Nations.

Katrina Brummer received the Zillman Award as a a senior double majoring in legal studies and Spanish.  With the award, she was able to explore issues related to human rights as she traveled to San Lucas Tolimán and Santiago, in Guatemala. While there, she worked on housing, coffee, and reforestation projects coordinated by the San Lucas Mission.

Joel Charles received the Zillman Award as a senior Spanish, history, and LACIS student.  Joel spent two months in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico carrying out community improvement projects. As a future medical student, Joel focused on health and nutrition development in this community.

Claire-Marie Hefner received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in anthropology and Southeast Asian studies. The award enabled her to continue her research on women in Islam by teaching in an Indonesian boarding school for girls.

Molly Sauerbry received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in biology. She used the award to travel to Tanzania, where she volunteered at the Peace House Foundation, a secondary school for orphans whose parents have died of AIDS.

Claire Allen, Julianna Arntzen, Amanda Infield, Anne Lovell, Mona Mogahed, Prethy Rao, Andrea Stitgen, Brett Watson. (Not pictured: Briana McGinnis)

Claire Allen received the Zillman Award as a junior double majoring in anthropology and history.  She used the award to volunteer at the Adolescent Learning Centers, a free school for Muslim girls in Hyderabad, India. While there, she conducted ethnographic research aimed at better understanding educational policy in India, especially as it intersects with gender and religious issues.

Julianna Arntzen received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in biology. She was able to travel to Costa Rica with a wildlife ecology research team to study the margay cat and better understand endangered species.

Amanda Infield received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in political science. She spent her Zillman summer in Washington, DC interning for Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. She was also able to conduct interviews and do primary research on American congressional politics.

Anne Lovell received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in biology. Anne used the award to travel with African Youth Outreach to an orphanage in South Africa, where she provided HIV/AIDS education and other programming for local children.

Briana McGinnis received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in political science. With the award Briana was able to conduct archival research at the University of Sussex, England.  There she focused on the use of time in Virginia Woolf’s work and the political aspects of her writing.

Mona Mogahed received the Zillman Award as a junior communications arts major.  Mona spent the summer in Cairo, Egypt where she researched Arab perceptions of Americans and the United States. She carried out archival research and fieldwork in urban communities in order to understand Arab interpretations of news events involving the United States.

Pretty Rao received the Zillman Award as a junior biology major.  The award enabled her to participate in a field optical program serving underprivileged individuals in Central America. She assisted in basic eye examinations, school eye care screenings, and received training in clinical management.

Andrea Staten received the Zillman Award as a junior biology and Spanish double major.  will travel to Central America to participate in a medical program. There, she will be involved in field operations including screening for hypertension and diabetes, patient intake interview and clinical triage, and tropical medicine.

Brett Watson received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Political Science, Legal Studies, and African-American Studies. Brett is the co-founder of the Student Civic Engagement Advocacy/Lobbying Coalition, a firm dedicated to state and federal policy change that promotes youth voting participation. Over the summer of 2007 he traveled to Washington, DC, where he will set up an office and established further contacts with legislators and lobbyists.

Michael De Vita, Ben Schumacher, Cassy Tully, Rishi Wadhera, Seppi Lehner
(Not pictured: Aaron Cohen)

Aaron Cohn received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Biology. He traveled to Jerusalem over the summer to work with Dr. Aharon Lev-Tov of Hebrew University’s Ein Kerem medical school. Aaron worked in Dr. Lev-Tov’s electrophysiology lab recording neuron activity in rodent spinal cords.

Michael De Vita received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Biology. Over the summer he traveled to Managua, Nicaragua to volunteer with the Manna Project International. The award provided Michael the opportunity to assist with projects in the areas of health, literacy, arts and youth sports.

Ben Schumaker received the Zillman Award as a graduate student in the Masters of Social Work program. He is also founder of the “Memory Project,” which grew out of work he did in an orphanage in Guatamala after receiving a Zillman Award three years ago. The project collected photographs of children living in orphanages and recruited high school art students to make portraits from these photos. This award allowed Ben the opportunity to continue this project into graduate school.

Cassy Tully received the Zillman Award as a senior with a major in the Fine Arts. With the award she was able to study Italian relief artwork in Florence, Italy in order to develop her skills and knowledge as a ceramic artist.

Rishi Wader received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Biology. Rishi, like Michael, traveled to Managua, Nicaragua to work with the Manna Project International. In Nicaragua, Rishi helped develop health education programs in Spanish to increase awareness amongst local villagers, particularly about HIV and AIDS.

Joseph Lehner received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Anthropology, with a certificate in Archaeology.  Joseph joined an archeological project at the site of Kerkenes Dag, a low granitic mountain in central Turkey over the summer.

Amos Briggs received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in Political Science and Anthropology. Over the  summer he worked as an intern in the Washington, D.C. office of Congressman David Obey, of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.

Melissa Brown received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Political Science, Psychology, and Spanish. She spent a month during the summer working with conservationists on the Limahuli Preserves, in a remote area of the Hawaiian Islands. There Melissa facilitated communication with political officials and local residents about the benefits of legislation to preserve the area’s resources.

Sophia Estante received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in English Literature, Creative Writing, and Journalism. Working on an inter-disciplinary research project regarding hypertext in critical Internet studies, she traveled to the University of California-Berkeley for several days over the summer to explore their unique archival resources and do hands-on work for her project.

Raymond Lam received the Zillman Award as a junior majoring in Music Performance and Computer Sciences. The award provided him an opportunity to  attend a music camp that allowed him to further his skills as a clarinetist and a musician.

Benjamin Mark Moss received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Hebrew & Semitic Studies and Integrated Liberal Studies. Over the summer he traveled to Israel to study both Hebrew and the culture and history of the Middle East in an immersion program at the University of Haifa.

Simona Rosu received the Zillman Award as a senior biochemistry major. She  participated in a program through an international volunteer project, “Volunteers for Peace”.  There she worked for a nature reserve in Michoacan , Mexico which is famous for its monarch butterflies.

Amelia Swanson received the Zillman Award as a senior majoring in Psychology, Spanish, and Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies. With the award she was able to do volunteer work in Mexico over the summer, organizing and presenting workshops on culture, recreation, and environmental education to rural communities.

Rishi Wader received the Zillman Award as a junior with a biology major. With the award he traveled to India and worked with Combat Blindness, an organization started by a UW-Madison professor of Ophthalmology, Dr. Suresh Chandra.