As part of the 261st Princeton University Commencement on June 3, the Woodrow Wilson School awarded degrees and academic prizes to undergraduate and graduate candidates.

Eighty-three Woodrow Wilson graduate students—55 M.P.A., 8 M.P.A.-U.R.P., 16 M.P.P., and 4 Ph.D. candidates—received their degrees and joined the ranks of Woodrow Wilson School graduate alumni. The undergraduate class of 2008 totaled 85 students, with 9 certificate students.

At the School’s Hooding Reception on the evening of June 2, the School’s Acting Dean Nolan McCarty presented a number of academic awards to WWS graduate students. The M.P.P. Award, presented to the M.P.P. student who achieved the most distinguished academic record among his or her colleagues, was presented to Marine Buissonniere. A 1994 graduate of the MBA Institute in Paris, France, Buissonniere spent the last 13 years working with Médecins Sans Frontières in the role of interpreter, administrator, head of mission, and operations director in China, the Palestinian territories, Japan, and North and South Korea. Upon graduation, she began serving a short-term assignment with the United Nations Division of Peacekeeping Operations.

The Somers Prize, established to honor the memory of former WWS faculty member and prominent authority on healthcare Herman M. “Red” Somers, 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. student Jessica Hembree. While attending Kansas State University, Hembree worked in the non-profit realm, including Kansas legal aid, grassroots health coalitions, and youth development organizations. After graduating in 2003, she interned at the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. as part of the Harry S. Truman Fellowship. She also worked as the Thomas M. Menino Fellow at the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families. She spent her WWS summer internship working at the Kansas Health Institute, and accepted a job as a program officer at the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City in Kansas City, Mo.

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, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School from 1974–1992. This year two individuals received the award: M.P.A.-U.R.P. student Tanya DeMello and M.P.A. student Jonathan Kaufman.

DeMello graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2002. While at Princeton she was co-chair of the 2005 Students and Alumni of Color Symposium and served as one of the community service representatives on the WWS graduate student government. She spent six months in Senegal, working in emergency relief through the UN World Food Programme. DeMello then spent six months in Colombia working in a field office in Villavicencio for the UN High Commissioner of Refugees. She has accepted admission into McGill Law School so that she may enhance her skills to become an international human rights advocate.

Kaufman is a 2002 graduate of Yale University. During a year spent on a Fulbright Scholarship in Taiwan, he developed an interest in indigenous peoples’ rights and decided to go to law school, graduating from Harvard Law School in 2006. In 2007, Kaufman served as one of the curriculum representatives on the WWS graduate student government and was one of several students instrumental in organizing a service auction to benefit the Trenton Soup Kitchen. In his second year at WWS, he served as one of three student members of the M.P.A. admissions committee and as one of the leaders of his Policy Workshop on Urban Development in China’s Cities.

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 Dennis Markatos. A domestic policy concentrator at WWS, Markatos consulted with the University’s Office of Sustainability for his summer internship. He also co-founded and co-chaired a chapter of SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment) at Princeton, and focused on transforming the University into a national leader on climate change mitigation policy.
In addition to the School’s special awards, four M.P.A. students earned the STEP certificate, six M.P.A. and three M.P.P. students received the Health and Health Policy (HHP) certificate, and one M.P.A. student received the Demography Certificate. Three students also completed the requirements to earn the School’s first Urban Policy Certificate (UP), and three students earned the first WWS certificates in Urban Policy and Planning (UPP).
 

Stan Katz, faculty chair of the School’s undergraduate program, presented academic awards to School undergraduates at a ceremony earlier that day.

The Woodrow Wilson Senior Thesis Prize, awarded to the writer of a thesis of unusual merit, was earned by students Julia Brower, Cathy Yan, and Michael Honigberg. Stephen Hsia was awarded the Class of 1924 Award, given annually to the senior whose contribution to a policy task force has been judged most outstanding. The Donald E. Stokes Dean’s Prize, awarded annually to seniors who have made the most significant contribution to the Undergraduate Program and to the Woodrow Wilson School, went to Elizabeth Horner and Owen Fletcher. The Myron T. Herrick Prize, awarded to the writer of the best thesis in the Woodrow Wilson School, went to Philip Levitz.

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 Kayvon Tehranian. Jared Nicholson was awarded the Gale F. Johnston Prize in Public Affairs. This award is presented to the senior who has shown both great improvement and achieved excellence in work in the Woodrow Wilson School. This year’s Richard H. Ullman Prize, awarded to the senior who writes the best senior thesis on U.S. foreign policy, went to Ross Liemer.