Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences › Department of English › News & Events › Archive › 2019 › Spotlighting English Undergraduate Students: Spring 2019

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June 11, 2019

Spotlighting English Undergraduate Students: Spring 2019

By Angela Januzzi ajanuzzi(through)andrew.cmu.edu

Each year English undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon University achieve an array of departmental awards, external prizes, and professional opportunities in their fields. Several undergraduate students, however, are recognized through financial awards for distinctive project work or internships.

This past spring was an especially exciting time for scholarship and grant recognition of CMU English's undergraduates.

Rebecca Enright (Rising Senior; Creative Writing Major; Double Minor in Animation & Special Effects and Film & Media Studies) was awarded the 2019-2020 Charles C. Dawe Memorial Award, for up to $2,000 to support her proposed project Reproductive Prisons. Combining animation with questions of investigative journalism, the work seeks to amplify modern American prison inmates’ “eugenics” experiences over the past decade, such as those of prisoners offered legally shortened sentences for agreeing to sterilization procedures. The project will be supervised by Professor Necia Werner from the Department of English and Professor Johannes DeYoung from the Department of Art.

Rebecca Enright has also been recognized for her thesis project by the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Honors Fellowship, along with Ji Hyun (Julie) Kim (Rising Senior; Additional Major in Professional Writing; Psychology Major; Human-Computer Interaction Minor). Enright's Creative Writing thesis, Hell's Mark, will be supervised by English faculty member Gerald Costanzo. Kim's Professional Writing thesis, Asian American Representation in the American Education System, will be advised by English faculty member Richard Purcell. Only six Dietrich College students were awarded this fellowship.

On behalf of the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English, Olivia Snavely (Rising Junior; Creative Writing Major) was awarded The Bart and Kathleen Astor Endowed Creative Writing Award. The recipient receives $1,800 each academic year and may be used for, but is not limited to: undergraduate student tuition, fees, living expenses, travel to writing conferences, student research, student internships and publishing projects.

Also on behalf of the Creative Writing Program, Anna Anderson (Rising Junior; Creative Writing Major with an Additional Major in Professional Writing; Minor in Film & Media Studies) was the inaugural winner of The Grillo-Marxuach Family Scholarship. The new award funds undergraduate students enrolled at the University who are majoring in Creative Writing. CMU English alumnus, producer and writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach presented the award at a craft talk and soft launch event for the new B.A. in Film and Visual Media, March 6, 2019.

For Summer 2019, the Marion Mulligan Sutton, MM 1965, Internship Fund awarded The Marion Mulligan Sutton Internship Award for English/ Writing Majors to the following three recipients: Anna Anderson, also winner of The Grillo-Marxuach Family Scholarship above; Aleksandra Ambroziak (Rising Senior; Dual Degree student with a B.A. Creative Writing and B.F.A. in Music Performance, with an Additional Major in Professional Writing); and Leila Berger (Rising Sophomore; Creative Writing Major). Additionally, earlier in Spring 2019, the following students received the award: Kathryn Reilly (Rising Senior; Professional Writing Major; Minor in Business Administration), and Amber Quinn (Rising Junior; Professional Writing Major with an Additional Major in Creative Writing; Double Minors in International Relations & Politics and Music).

The Sutton Internship Award helps support students’ upcoming experiences with their respective internships. Ambroziak will be a Publishing Intern with Eulalia Books in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and she also will intern at Shine Registry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with support from a Dietrich College Pittsburgh Summer Internship award; Anderson will also be a Publishing Intern, with Harvey Klinger, Inc., in New York City; Berger will be a Writing Intern at Niantic, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. This spring, Reilly was an Editorial Intern at CMU School of Architecture, while Quinn was a City Research and Media Content Intern with Pack Up + Go in Pittsburgh.

For a summer 2019 internship with MY Entertainment in New York, NY, Mina Dibonge (Rising Senior; Creative Writing Major; Double Minors in Drama and Film & Media Studies) received a grant of $2,000.00 to help cover projected out-of-pocket expenses. The award was made possible by the Dietrich College Dean's Internship Fund, through a gift by David and Marchell Hilliard.

To round-out the school year, two students in the Department of English’s Film and Visual Media program received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from CMU. Owen Fox (Rising Senior; Creative Writing Major with an Additional Major in Social & Political History; Minor in Film & Media Studies) and Matthew Benusa (Rising Junior; Film & Visual Media Major) were awarded $3,500 for 8-10 full-time weeks making their Western film adaptation of Aeschylus’ The Eumenides. The project will attempt to chart a new course for the American Western genre by breaking completely with the standards that have come to define it. They will be supervised by English’s Film & Visual Media faculty member Jeffrey Hinkelman.

All recipients are asked to write thank you letters for their awards, summarizing how the support has enriched their educational experiences and potential professional paths.

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