Meet Our 2020-2021 Scholarship Award Winners
Report from the Scholarship Committee
The Scholarship Committee has completed its work for 2020-2021. Our
thanks to Sandy Camargo (Chair), Lori Choquette, Anne Heiles, Ann
Long, Matt Macomber, Donna Offenbecher, Kathy Valdés, and Joyce
Wright (Assistant Chair). Joyce and Matt will serve as Chair and Assistant
Chair next year. Please contact Joyce if you would like to join the
Committee.
We reconfigured our awards for this year. Our new offerings are the
STEM Award, the Humanities/Social Sciences Award, the Isabelle
Purnell Education Award, and the Global Focus Award. We are grateful
to Judy Ikenberry for her continued support of the Judith Life Ikenberry
Fine Arts Award.
The winner of the Isabelle Purnell Education Award is Alexis Martinez.
Alexis plans to teach History in secondary school. She wants to inspire
and challenge her students by teaching what she calls "holistic history."
The winners of STEM Awards are Jong Hwang, Ishita Rao, and
Justin Wang. Jong is majoring in mechanical engineering with a
concentration on soft robotics. Ishita studies computer science and
linguistics with an eye towards improving the human interface with AI
like Alexa and Google Home. Justin also studies computer science but is
majoring in Mathematics and Statistics as well. His research focuses on
making algorithms more functional, so that they can do more than
advertise items someone thinks that we might want to buy.
The winner of the Humanities/Social Sciences Award is Adem Osmani.
Adem is majoring in Political Science. His passion is Legal Humanities,
an approach that studies the intersection of politics, culture, and history
on the shape of the law.
The winners of Global Focus Awards are Enddy Almonord and Sophie
Luijten. Enddy majors in Political Science and dreams of a career in
immigration rights and helping immigrants negotiate what she calls the
"bureaucratic labyrinth." Sophie majors in Global Studies and Spanish
and is focusing on climate change and ethical concerns relating to
workers rights.
The winner of this year's Ikenberry Fine Arts Award is Vincent Chang.
The committee was blown away by Vincent's talent and by his thoughtful
and articulate ability to explain the abstract qualities of music to those of
us who aren't musically adept.
Each one of our winners is energetic, articulate, poised, and incredibly
accomplished. We hope that you will attend our virtual Awards ceremony
so that you can meet them.
Please consider contributing to The Illinois Club Scholarship Fund
The Illinois Club provides financial support to worthy University of Illinois students.
You can donate securely online at
http://theillinoisclub.org/donations.php
OR by check made payable to University of Illinois Foundation.
Mail to: PO Box 2782, Champaign IL 61825.
Please write The Illinois Club on the memo line.
All donations go directly to U of I Foundation.
They send a thank you and your form for your taxes.
The funds are deposited in The Illinois Club Scholarship Fund
as you have indicated on the form or with your check.
The Scholarship Committee is informed of the amount available for scholarships each year
but not the name of the donor(s) or the amount(s).
Any donation of any size is welcome.
Be comfortable and thank you for helping to fund more scholarships.
Scholarship Award Ceremony March 6, 2021
Watch our event video, on Mediaspace
|