Round of Applause

Three recent alumnae snag post-graduation honors around the globe.

By Mary Jo Patterson

Shannon Daley C’09

Claim to fame: 2010 Fulbright Scholar
What she’ll study: Race relations in Quito, Ecuador. More specifically, whether urbanization has led to social mobility and political inclusion for Afro-Ecuadorians, whose ancestors were taken there as slaves by the Spanish.
Length of stay: 10 months. Daley will spend the first three perfecting her Spanish before beginning to interview subjects.
What’s after the Fulbright: She intends to get her Ph.D. in sociology and work with people in Latino communities in the United States.
What she did this summer to get ready: Daley practiced her Spanish while working in New York.  In one area, however, she felt supremely competent. “It is customary to arrive late to social events in Ecuador,” she says. “ Ive been practicing for that my whole life. I’ll fit right in.”

Kristin Germinario C’10

Claim to fame: Knowles Science Teaching Fellowship
What this means: Germinario, one of 11 biology teaching fellows nationwide, will receive five years of professional and financial support totaling $150,000, starting in graduate school and spanning the early years of her teaching career. She is currently enrolled in Drew’s Master of Arts in Teaching program.
What comes next: After graduating from the MAT program next spring, she’ll look for a job teaching high school biology.
What hooked her on teaching: Being able to engage an apathetic eighth grader, whom Germinario taught in a summer science public school program. By the time the class ended, the student was not only excited about biology, but also one of her top students.

Marnie Valdivia C’10

Claim(s) to fame: A U.S. State Department Critical Languages Scholarship and a Presidential Internship from the American University in Cairo. The twin honors caused her to set aside her acceptance to graduate school.
What’s ahead: After a summer of intensive Arabic language study in Jordan, she’ll spend 10 months working at the university’s Desert Develop ment Center. After that, “I’m going to apply for everything—graduate school, jobs, internships, fellowships—and see what the best option is,” Valdivia says. Her ultimate goal is to help bring about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What she is telling family members: That she’s unlikely to come home for Christmas, so they should visit her. That they shouldn’t worry about her safety. And that they will be able to follow her blog, which might just include an Arabic word of the day.

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