As part of the 262nd Princeton University Commencement, the Woodrow Wilson School awarded degrees and academic prizes to undergraduate and graduate candidates. Ninety-seven Woodrow Wilson graduate students - 66 M.P.A., 25 M.P.P., and six Ph.D. candidates - received their degrees and joined the ranks of Woodrow Wilson School graduate alumni. Eighty-two Woodrow Wilson School majors also received their undergraduate degrees, along with three WWS certificate students.

At the hooding reception the night before the June 2 Commencement ceremony, the School’s Acting Dean Mark Watson presented a number of academic awards to WWS graduate students. The first award, given to the M.P.P. student who achieved the most distinguished academic record among his or her colleagues, was presented to Joanne Evans.  Evans is a 1993 graduate of Australian National University and received an M.S. in Environmental Science in 1999 from the University of Melbourne. She has worked in both the public and private sectors with McKinsey & Company and the Australian Public Service and advised the Australian government on policy issues surrounding climate change and natural resource management. Evans has accepted a position with the Australian Department of Climate Change as Assistant Secretary.

The Somers Prize, established to honor the memory of Herman M. "Red" Somers, a former WWS faculty member and prominent authority on healthcare, is given to a student concentrating in domestic policy who has distinguished himself or herself in the School's coursework and mission. This year’s prize went to M.P.A. students Catherine Harrison and Andrea Lipstein.

Prior to coming to Princeton, Harrison worked at a health policy research consulting firm in Washington, D.C. and examined health care politics and policy as a print journalist for the weekly trade publication, The Pink Sheet.  While at WWS, she concentrated in Domestic Policy and interned during the summer at the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative in Geneva, Switzerland.  She also participated in the policy workshop on health care services in Himachal Pradesh, India. 

Lipstein came to Princeton from Eugene, Oregon, where she was entrenched in Oregon politics, managing the successful 2006 campaign for Democratic House of Representative candidate Chris Edwards. At WWS, Lipstein focused on Domestic Policy with an emphasis on health. During the summer of 2008 she worked in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Health Organization’s department for Reproductive Health and Research. She has been selected as a Presidential Management Fellow and will join the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services in Washington, D.C, upon graduation.

The Stokes Prize is awarded for academic achievement and public service leadership to the graduating M.P.A. student whose achievements best exemplify the life and work of the late Donald E. Stokes, who was Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School from 1974 -1992. This year’s award went to Asher Hildebrand.

Hildebrand is a 2003 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to attending Princeton, he served on the staff of U.S. Representative David Price (D-NC) as a Legislative Assistant for a broad range of domestic policy issues.  He has also worked at a small think tank focused on U.S.-Latin American relations and as a researcher and editor for an author writing a biography of former Secretary of State Colin Powell.  Hildebrand concentrated in International Affairs at WWS focusing on conflict prevention and resolution, democracy development, religious affairs, U.S. policy toward the Middle East, and U.S. Congressional politics.  During the summer he interned at the International Foundation for Election Systems) in Lebanon, where he worked on a project to reform the country’s electoral law in advance of the next parliamentary election and expanded his command of the Arabic language. He has accepted the position of Legislative Director for Democratic Representative of North Carolina Congressman Price.

The David Bradford award, given to the Science, Technology and Environmental Program (STEP) student who has achieved both a distinguished academic record and service within that program, went to M.P.A. student Andrew Eil.  Eil concentrated in International Development at WWS focusing on climate change and energy policy.  He served as the STEP representative on the WWS graduate student government, and he did his summer internship at the International Energy Agency of OECD in Paris, France. Eil was part of the policy workshop this past fall on integrating clean air and greenhouse gas mitigation strategies for the EPA. He will be spending this summer in Beijing, improving his Chinese language skills and working on environmental issues through the auspices of the Princeton-in-Asia program.

Six M.P.A. students and one M.P.P. student earned the STEP certificate. Six M.P.A. students and one M.P.P. student received the Health and Health Policy (HHP) certificate, and one student earned an Urban Policy Certificate (U.P).  In addition, one M.P.A. student and two M.P.P. students earned WWS certificates in Urban Policy and Planning (U.P.P.).

The School awarded several prizes to WWS undergraduates earlier in the day.

The Richard H. Ullman Prize, awarded to the senior who writes the best senior thesis on U.S. foreign policy, was awarded to Robert Weiss. This year three students earned the Woodrow Wilson Senior Thesis Prize, awarded to the writer of a thesis of unusual merit: Shannon Brink; Jing Ren; and Beza Tesfaye.

The Myron T. Herrick Prize, awarded to the writer of the best thesis in the Woodrow Wilson School, went to Michael Shih. The Gale F. Johnston Prize in Public Affairs was given to Daniella Raveh. This award is given to the senior who has shown both great improvement and achieved excellence in work in the Woodrow Wilson School.

The Lieutenant John A. Larkin Memorial Prize is awarded to a senior who writes the best thesis in the field of political economy or on a broadly interdisciplinary subject in which economics plays the most important part. This year’s prize went to Ankur Patel.

The Class of 1924 award, annually awarded to the senior whose contribution to a policy task force has been judged most outstanding, went to Robert Barnett and Melissa Lerner. The Donald E. Stokes Dean’s Prize, given to seniors who have made the most significant contribution to the undergraduate program and to the Woodrow Wilson School, was awarded to Katie Ko.