Class Acts 2014

In everyone’s life there are pivotal moments that could change the future, but whether or not they do depends on recognizing their meaning and value.

Esther Barker, a financial accounting assistant in radiation oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine, has no plans to switch careers now that she has earned a history degree from University College in Arts & Sciences.

“Unfortunately all of the people who come here to float or hike drive straight through the towns,” said Andrew Sheeley, who grew up in the Ozarks. “They don’t stop at local businesses or get to know the local people.”

Kasey Joyce, former reporter for KSDK-TV in St. Louis and president of the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Association at Olin Business School, has been highly involved with entrepreneurship in her two years in the MBA program.

“Prior to attending the Brown School I volunteered for a year in Honduras.

Marcus Surles was working as a courier when he was dispatched to deliver some pamphlets to Seigle Hall.

Christina “Nina” Marino will receive a doctorate in physical therapy at Commencement, after which she will begin a clinical residency in women’s health.

Abigail (Abby) Fraeman’s love of space really took off during middle school when her father brought home a telescope.

Sarah Raven, a master’s candidate in the BS/MS program in mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will start work in July as a structural analysis engineer at The Boeing Company, working with military aircraft.

Grace Feenstra, an Annika Rodriguez Scholar who majored in economics and urban studies in Arts & Sciences, will join other WUSTL classmates and alums at Bain & Company in Dallas where she will work as an associate consultant.

Ryan Rimer has wanted to be a physician since he was 10. It just took a little longer than usual to make that happen.

Andrew Blumberg and Amanda Stein have landed coveted clerkships with the Delaware Court of Chancery.

In the days before 9/11, Luis Lopez-Blazquez would explore the airfields of Miami International Airport with his father, a civil engineer there.

Doctoral candidate in anthropology Helina Woldekiros’ research on ancient salt caravans in her native Ethiopia brings her to the Danakil Depression, among the hottest and lowest places on Earth.

Shortly after graduation, Brittaney Bethea, who will receive her master’s degree in public health from the Brown School, will move back to her hometown of Atlanta, Ga., to work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Andrew Skalman’s positive outlook fuels success on and off the field.

“Architecture is something that people take for granted,” said Michael Savala, a senior architecture major in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Tim Cooney grew up in St. Louis and rarely had a place where his friends could gather and play a pick-up game of basketball.

Kuumba is an online media platform showcasing Washington University’s creative community.

Maximiliaan “Maxim” Schillebeeckx is a founding member of The Biotechnology and Life Science Advising Group (BALSA), a nonprofit led by Washington University graduate students and postdoctoral students.

There’s no shortage of competition in the T-shirt market, but student entrepreneurs and Fresh Prints founders Josh Arbit and Jacob Goodman have carved out a profitable niche by focusing on custom apparel for college students.

A roll of cookie dough is no more secure in a disposable bag than a backpack. And water is no cooler from a plastic bottle than a box.

If you saw any pictures from the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University, there was the Brown School’s De Andrea Nichols onstage opening night, among a group of five students selected from a large pool of participants for their exemplary projects.

Happiness doesn’t just happen, said senior Austin Spurlock, founder of campus positivity group Do One Thing (DOT). It takes a good attitude, a generous spirit and, sometimes, bubble wrap.

Ambika Subramaniam is a sculpture major in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts with a minor in film and media studies in Arts & Sciences.

When Washington University School of Medicine students Elisabeth Askin and Nathan Moore wanted to learn more about the nation’s health care system, the majority of resources they found were narrowly focused, opinion-based publications or dense reference books.

Jennifer Rowley was a kid herself when she volunteered at a Cambodian orphanage. Every child there had lost a parent to AIDS; many were HIV positive.

The Eads Bridge is a St. Louis jewel, a historic landmark and a wonder of open steel framing.

The child: Sydney, a 13-year-old who lost her arm in a boating accident when she was 6 years old.

Curating a museum exhibition is never a small task. For an undergraduate student, it’s a rare opportunity.

Dominic Sanford, MD, (right) is on track to be a “star surgical oncologist,” according to his mentor and program director, Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH.

The School of Law’s competition teams – the Jessup Team and the Trial Teams – scored big in both national and international competitions.

A Belgian company was so impressed with the efforts of a group of Olin Business School MBA students to map out a U.S. market entry strategy, the company made the trip to St. Louis to further interact with the students, marking the first time an international practicum partner has visited the school.

A group of WUSTL students known collectively as “The Force” won the $50,000 top prize during GlobalHack’s first 48-hour ‘hackathon’ held Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in St. Louis.

Vanessa Ridaura, PhD, a graduate student in molecular genetics and genomics, will leave the university with an honor that recognizes a graduate student whose laboratory endeavors bridge basic research and clinical medicine.

Kate Doyle, a chemistry major in Arts & Sciences, excelled on and off the field in her four years at Washington University.

Rebecca Gernes came to the Brown School with an interest in studying the role geography, or place, played in public health equity.

Graduate student Phillip B. Williams was one of five young poets nationwide to receive a prestigious $15,000 fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine.

As a child in Cameroon, in west Central Africa, Raymond “Bamvi” Fohtung watched his father, a family physician, care for neighbors and others in his community. Inspired, he decided that he, too, would become a doctor one day.

Washington University students’ Green Machine, an elaborate machine built solely to zip a zipper, took second place at the Rube Goldberg 2014 College Nationals April 12 in Columbus, Ohio.

Joseph Orkin, a graduate student in anthropology in Arts & Sciences, won both the “audience’s choice” and “judge’s choice” awards at the St. Louis FameLab held Feb. 22, advancing to the national competition.

Camille Lynn Wright, a fashion major in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, traveled to Senegal as part of a six-week independent research project with the African and African-American Studies program in Arts & Sciences.

he 27th Rhodes Scholar from Washington University, Joshua Aiken earned a number of honors throughout the past four years. He served as a Humanity in Action American Fellow (2013), a U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission Summer Institute participant (2012) and a U.S. House of Representatives legislative intern (2012).

As a freshman, Ken Zheng, a computer science student in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, founded Making Music Matters, which offered free violin lessons to students in one local school.

It was an interest in law and social work that led Caroline Fish to a Brown School practicum in the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Missouri, but it is an interest in stopping gender-based violence and human trafficking that is leading Fish to continue her work on a volunteer basis long after the practicum ended.

Anjali Nigam and Sarah Kay Hendred, both graduate students in the Program in Occupational Therapy at the School of Medicine, have volunteered their skills to help people from other countries improve their quality of life.

Every year, APO members donate some 6,000 hours to community service initiatives on and off campus.

During winter break, Allie Harris helped organize a mission trip to Guatemala for third-year students in the Program in Physical Therapy at the School of Medicine.

The law calls them thieves, addicts, even murderers. But to Rose McCarty, the detainees at St. Louis’ Juvenile Detention Center are just kids.

Project Picasso volunteer Nancy Rekhelman taught cancer patients how to create Chihuly-inspired sculptures with clay and toothpicks.

Mike McLaughlin hiked more than 2,500 miles to raise money for children.

Service is an integral component of a Washington University legal education.

Between the hours in the lecture hall and the lab, there was dancing in the Quad, cheering at Francis Field and tug-of-war in the Swamp. Here graduating students reminisce about some of their most memorable moments at Washington University in St. Louis.

The future is bright for Washington University in St. Louis’ Class of 2014. The following stories offer a sampling of where our graduates are headed now that their WUSTL adventure has drawn to a close.

Great ideas abound at Washington University in St. Louis. The following stories offer a glimpse into the Class of 2014’s many innovative endeavors.

Washington University in St. Louis students aren’t waiting until they graduate to achieve great things. The following stories recount just some of the successes already garnered by the Class of 2014.