Eckley Summer '23 Scholars Announced

June 29, 2023

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Four Illinois Wesleyan students have been awarded fellowships through the 2023 Robert S. and Nell B. Eckley Summer Scholars and Artists Program .

Each scholar will receive a $4,000 stipend to spend the summer conducting academic research or artistic activity under the mentorship of a faculty member. Established by the late IWU President Emeritus Robert Eckley and his wife Nell, the program is designed to develop and deepen a student’s creative and research competencies.

Students selected for the fellowship, their projects and their faculty sponsors are:

 

Student: Jadyn Bothe '25
Project: “Can Thyroid Hormone be Used to Promote Corneal Nerve Regeneration?”
Faculty Sponsor: Associate Professor of Biology Tyler Schwend
Major: Neuroscience
Hometown: Oregon, Illinois

 

 

 

Student: Melinda Burgin '25
Project: “Exploring Environmental Inequities: Solutions to an Emerging Crisis”
Faculty Sponsor: Ben and Susan Rhodes Endowed Professor in Peace and Social Justice, Professor of Political Science Jim Simeone
Majors: Art and Political Science
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

 

 

Student: Barbara Kuznetsova '24
Project: “Forbidden Relationships: Queer Anxiety in Gothic Literature”
Faculty Sponsor: Visiting Assistant Professor of English Allison Serraes 
Major: English Writing
Hometown: Moscow, Russia

 

 

 

Student: Anna Sheaffer '24
Project: “Web-Based Application for Visualizing Protein-Protein Interaction Network Alignment”
Faculty Sponsor: Assistant Professor of Computer Science Brian Law
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Plainfield, Illinois

 

By Julia Perez