2014 Hester and Raiser Fellowships Announced

 

The Lauren Sarah Hester Fellowship was created in 1988 in memory of Lauren, NCS Class of 1987, and provides an opportunity for a rising senior to undertake an independent project or travel program during the summer following her junior year. This year’s Hester Fellows are:

 

Lidwina Bell ’15, for her project, “Children in the Fields: A Study of Migrant Farmer Youth Advocacy.” Lidwina will explore advocacy for child migrant farm workers on both the community-organizing level and the policy level. She will visit a migrant camp in North Carolina to gain insight on child labor conditions, and partner with the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) in D.C., contributing to their media efforts and visiting Capitol Hill.

 

Linda Krasniewski ’15, for her project, “Journalism and Media in the Information Age: A Case Study in China.” Linda plans to investigate “the shifting roles of media in China today with an analytical approach founded on media ecology." Given the opportunity to travel to China, she hopes to gain insight about the challenges facing the next generation of journalists, entrepreneurs, and consumers.

 

Established in 1995, the Raiser Environmental Fellowship is a summer study-travel program sponsored by NCS alumna Skye Raiser '85. The fellowship funds a student's or students' self-designed scientific research program in the fields of environmental science, biodiversity, conservation, or the impact of environmental degradation or pollution on human life. This year’s Raiser Fellows are:

 

Caroline Ingram ’15, for “Developing Ways to Increase Crop Yields through Improved Soil Monitoring and Modification.” Caroline will be working with Dr. Rebecca Nelson in her lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, researching seed productivity and disease as they relate to the seed’s surroundings and yields. The ultimate goal of the lab is to find efficient ways for farmers in developing regions of Sub-Saharan Africa to produce more food.

 

Rachel Rubin ’15, for “Skaftartunga, Iceland: Understanding Human Responses to Environmental Change.” Rachel will take part in the North Atlantic Biocultural Organisation (NABO) Comparative Island Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic Project, a transdisciplinary effort that will study two historic communities in Greenland and Iceland, which had radically different outcomes when faced with rapid environmental change.

 

Congratulations to all of our new Fellows, for the hard work and creativity reflected in their research proposals.  We look forward to learning about their experiences and research results during the next school year!