SPRING 2023 ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

Spring 2023

5/24/2023

As the vibrant colors of spring blossom around us, we are delighted to welcome you to the Spring Quarter Newsletter. In this edition, we want to specifically emphasize our senior capstone presentations - there are 90 students presenting! To celebrate their hard work and upcoming graduation, we encourage you to attend (in person or virtually!). We hope to see you there and wish you well in these upcoming summer months.

Honors Grad Spotlight

2022-2023 Honors Outstanding Graduate:
Petra McDonnell Ingoglia

Petra is a baking enthusiast, book lover, and animal whisperer! She graduated with a major in history (with a focus on African American studies), and minors in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, political science, and honors interdisciplinary studies, graduated Magna Cum Laude, and was the commencement speaker for the December 2022 ceremony. She was the recipient of the prestigious Kohlmeier-Mikulencak Scholarship from the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Petra was extremely active in the Honors College including working for Honors Outreach to Past and Prospective Students, a member of the Honors Book Club for two years, and the president of the Honors Book Club for one year. She also worked as an academic advisor and Peer Advisor in the academic advising center. Her last year at Western she was the Lead Academic Student Advisor, leading and training a team of 30 other students to run summer advising and orientation for all new students. She is grateful to be able to explore her passions and have lengthy conversations with the Honors staff and history faculty who helped to foster her pursuit of research. Much of her research has been on memorial culture across the world and culminated in her senior project on the effects that confederate memorial culture has on US society. She has remained in Bellingham and works as an advising and outreach specialist at Whatcom Community College.

Spring Senior Capstone Presentations

Mark your calendar for Spring Quarter Senior Capstone presentations! Scheduled from Friday, May 26 to Friday, June 9, we have over 90 incredible presentations. To arrange attendance at any presentation, please email Honors@wwu.edu to request the Zoom link. All times listed are in Pacific Time.

See Full Capstone Schedule

Here's a sneak peek of some of our upcoming presentations:

A poster with an image of a sewing machine centered on a dark blue page, with text in pink and orange above and below. The text reads: "Making Space, A look into how the ENGD Makerspace promotes inclusion and belonging, and its success in doing so, presented by Noah Crow and advised by Jill Davishahl. OM330C on June 5th, 10am. For disability accommodations, please email honors@wwu.edu."

A poster with a notebook-lined paper background. Cartoon illustrations of DNA in the top and bottom corners. Title in large orange text: "How can scientific language be made more accessible? Linguae Biologiae. The language of anatomy, biology, and medicine." Smaller orange texts reads "Presented by Sydney Wong, advised by Danielle Martin. June 5, 2023 at 2 PM. Old Main 330A. For disability accommodations, please email honors@wwu.edu."

A pink poster with a pink shiny brain featured in the middle, surrounded by doodles meant to represent neural networks. The title reads "Hunting Down Treatment Therapies for Huntington's Disease. Sage Berry, advised by Dr. Jeffrey Carroll. 9:00, June 7 OM330 or by Zoom link. For disability accommodations, please email honors@wwu.edu."

A dark blue poster with water surface texturing with white line sketches of three salmon smolt and a harbor seal. Text reads "Seals and Salmon: Examining harbor seal predation impacts on Bellingham Technical College's salmon smolt release. Friday, June 9th, 10:00 a.m. OM 330C. Presented by Madison Gard. Advised by Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutiérrez. For disability accommodations, please email honors@wwu.edu"

WWU Give Day - May 25, 2023

The Honors College is gearing up for WWU's annual Give Day which is Thursday, May 25 – just around the corner! We continue to work on ways to support our exceptional students, faculty, and programs. We humbly ask that you consider making a gift to the WWU Honors College this Give Day where you will no doubt impact the lives of current and future Honors students. We utilize your gifts for student scholarships, aid for senior capstone projects, and to support the awesome events put on by our student leaders.

Give to the Honors College