Congratulations to our new scholarship recipients!
In lieu of a splendid celebration in 2021, the winners were all honored personally at their own homes. See the pictures and writeups below and watch for news of these outstanding young women in the future!
Olga Lindberg Awards
Emily Ivey (shown with director Rosaleen Nogle and chair Rosalind Kochmanski) is a second-year graduate student working toward a PhD. at the University at Buffalo, majoring in microbiology and immunology. Her focus of study is host restriction of viral infection. One of Emily’s noteworthy accomplishments is that she identified a new cellular defense gene that can potentially block the coronavirus in cells. She has also identified a viral gene that targets that cellular gene. Emily’s thesis work focuses on understanding cellular antiviral genes that target SARS-CoV-2 infection, with the ultimate goal of the discovery of novel SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic avenues.
Sara Jamieson (shown with chair Rosalind Kochmanski and Sue D’Angelo) is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Nazareth College in Rochester, majoring in Communication Sciences & Disorders. She recently qualified for the accelerated graduate program to work toward a Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology. Her goal is to earn a PhD in Speech Language Pathology, focusing on the role of counselor in relation to her client. Sara taught ASL and helped others understand the culture of the deaf community in Rochester, which has the largest deaf population in the U.S.
Catalyst for Change Awards
Claire Mullen (shown with her mom, director Rosaleen Nogle and Diane O’Brien), is a high school senior at Mount Mercy Academy who plans to study neuroscience and psychology at Cornell University in the fall. Ms. Mullen is passionate about pursuing better treatments and earlier diagnoses of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) in women. While AD is more common in women than in men, the current verbal diagnostic tests used to identify it were developed for men and are less effective for early diagnosis in women. In her professional life, Ms. Mullen intends to have a direct impact on this issue through becoming a research psychiatrist with the specific goal of creating a new diagnostic method which would offer more consistent early diagnosis of this dreadful disease in women.
Somayeh Bejbord (shown with director Rosaleen Nogle and Diane O’Brien) is a PhD student at the University at Buffalo majoring in Industrial Engineering. She has been living in Western New York for the past five years after earning her MS and BS in Industrial Engineering from AmirKabir University of Tehran in Iran. Ms. Bejbord is currently doing research in the area of sustainable transportation systems and plans to use the scholarship to advance her research and network with others in this field at conferences. Eventually, she plans to become a professor of Industrial Engineering. While pursuing her Master’s in Iran, Ms. Bejbord helped lead a program to help women advance within her company despite pervasive gender discrimination.
Women Entering College Scholarships
Maymuna Akter has a 4.16 GPA and plans to attend UB as a biological sciences major and nutrition minor aspiring to be a gynecologist specializing in women’s health. Motivated by growing up in Bangladesh and seeing the significance of quality health care on young women, she hopes to empower their dreams for a better life.
Her immigration journey taught her life lessons. “First and foremost, I learned to accept it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to stand out in a crowd.” Sharing her life story not only tells people who she is but demonstrates how similar we all are despite our differences.
Lucy Dietrich (shown with her mom and director Rosaleen Nogle) has a 96.02 GPA and ranks 8/136 at her school. She has already been accepted at Pratt Institute/Brooklyn, Pratt MWP/Utica, School for Visual Arts/Manhattan, Cleveland Institute of Art, and the University of the Arts/Philadelphia. Her goal is to become a working artist as well as working closely with galleries to exhibit the work of living artists and participate with non-profit art programs for children.
“Growing up in a generation of school lockdown drills, multiple environmental crises, and increasing civil unrest, I do not have a legal vote. Often my [art] work is how I’ve come to process global events, … I have discovered there are many ways to bring about change; artmaking happens to be mine.”