Three students receive $10,000 Reams Fellowships

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Three Bowling Green State University students have been awarded Frazier Reams Public Affairs Undergraduate Fellowships for 2007-08.

Corinne Staggs of Grove City, Thomas Bethany of North Olmsted and Lisa Halverstadt of Cleves will each receive $10,000 as this year's awardees.

The fellowships are presented annually to rising seniors who intend to pursue careers in journalism, political or governmental service, public health, law, education, community service or other fields in the public sector. Recipients must have a minimum accumulative grade point average of 3.2.

Staggs, who has maintained a straight-A average, is majoring in political science and English, with a minor in geology. She is a member of Sigma Tau Delta—the English honor society—and Mortar Board national leadership honor society, as well as BGSU's Model United Nations team, Academic Honesty Committee and IMPACT (Integrating Moral Principles and Critical Thinking) learning community.

Also the recipient of a National Merit Finalist Award, Staggs is interested in environmental law. She participated in GeoJourney, which offers interdisciplinary field investigations during a nine-week camping trip across the United States, and would eventually like to teach a GeoJourney course on laws governing the environment and public lands. She is also considering a stint in the Peace Corps, working in environmental education, and ultimately plans to pursue a Ph.D. in political science and teach in higher education.

Bethany is a political science major as well, with a history minor and a 3.7 grade point average. His memberships include Pi Sigma Alpha political science honorary, and he has been active in Undergraduate Student Government, Hall Council and the Dance Marathon fund-raiser for the Children's Miracle Network. In 2005, Bethany attended a conference on global poverty at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

He will return to Washington this summer for a law-related internship. He intends to seek a law degree and a legal career specializing in real estate, urban development and city planning. Bethany's long-term goals include public service, pro bono legal work and teaching.

Halverstadt carries a 3.8 grade point average with a major in print journalism and a minor in ethnic studies. City news editor of the BG News, she previously was a reporter and copy editor for the student newspaper, where she was named Reporter of the Year in 2005-06. Last summer, she was a reporting intern at the Community Press in Cincinnati; this summer, she will intern at the Columbus Dispatch.

A member of Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. as well as the BGSU Student Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Halverstadt would like to be an investigative reporter, eventually writing for a large metropolitan newspaper.

The Frazier Reams Public Affairs Undergraduate Fellowship Program was established in 1973 in memory of Frazier Reams Sr., for his distinguished service in the broadcasting industry and in recognition of his service as a member of Congress and a trustee of BGSU.

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(Posted May 08, 2007)