The College of Letters & Science is proud to announce the four recipients of 2021 Dean’s Prizes, awarded annually to the most outstanding undergraduate scholars in the senior class.
To be considered for a Dean’s prize, a student must have a minimum grade point average of 3.90, be a comprehensive honors candidate, have completed a thesis or other major research project, made significant contributions to the university or greater community and have received only the highest recommendations from faculty and community leaders.
WE CONGRATULATE THIS YEAR’S WINNERS:
Zachary Demko is a Psychology and French major from Milwaukee, who received Comprehensive Honors in Psychology and the Liberal Arts. He combined cutting-edge research opportunities, both in Madison and internationally, with a deep spirit of volunteerism. In Madison, he has given his time to a wide range of organizations, including the Urban League of Greater Madison, Domestic Abuse Intervention Services and the Catholic Charities Adult Day Care Center. Through a program hosted by RWTH Aachen University, Demko spent several months in Germany working on a research project about the parts of the brain involved in altruistic versus retaliatory social punishment and spent six months abroad at the Institut de Touraine, in France, honing his language skills. He continues to work on a Madison-based research project related to video game addiction.
“I would rate him among the top students who have passed through my lab in terms of matching the foundational pillars of the Wisconsin Experience,” says Shawn Green, a professor of psychology and the principal investigator on the project.
Demko received a Hilldale Research Fellowship and was named an Outstanding Undergraduate Research Scholar. He will spend the next two years as a researcher at the National Institute of Drug Abuse and then pursue graduate school, where he hopes to complete a PhD in clinical psychology and then work as a mental health clinician and researcher.
Max Herteen is an English and history major from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, who also graduated with a certificate in French. Herteen used his natural ability to connect with others to great advantage during his time at UW-Madison, serving as the student representative on the committee to explore a new Letters & Science Academic Building and as the principal bassist of the All-University Strings Orchestra for three of his four years in Madison. His senior honors thesis examined integration, equity and reform at Milwaukee’s North Division High School.
“Max struck me as a uniquely motivated and intellectually curious student, and that impression has only deepened as I have worked more closely with him as his History Department senior thesis advisor and as his instructor for a graduate-level seminar,” says Walter Stern, an assistant professor of history.
A four-year National Merit Scholar and Vilas Scholarship recipient, Herteen served as co-president of the Honors Student Organization, and was a member of the first Letters & Science Dean’s Ambassadors cohort. Herteen will begin graduate work in education policy and leadership at Marquette University in the fall.
Alyssa Meurer is a sociology and Spanish major from Elm Grove, Wisc., who showed a passion for improving the criminal justice system through public policy during her undergraduate career. Several of her undergraduate research projects, including her senior honors thesis on the moral framing of solitary confinement, focused on the impact of jail visits on prisoners’ quality of life. She combined her academic work with a long list of high-impact internships, including stints in the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office in Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Department of Children & Families. She also spent a semester studying abroad in Madrid, Spain.
“Alyssa is a great student, but she does so much more than get straight As,” says Leann Tigges, the professor emeritus of sociology who worked with Meurer on one of her undergraduate research projects. “She goes beyond what is required and expected. She challenges herself to understand the ‘why’ not just the ‘what’ of her course material.”
Meurer also served in several leadership positions of the UW-Madison student chapter of the Food Recovery Network, serving surplus food from campus dining halls to low-income citizens. She plans to attend the UC-Berkeley School of Law in the fall.
Lauren Schilling is a psychology and education studies major from Minoqua, Wisc., with honors certificates in the liberal arts and psychology. She quickly connected with her academic interests, taking upper-level psychology classes as a freshman and translating her academic work into various channels of community service, including becoming involved in the Building Academic, Social and Emotional Supports (BASES) program, designed to help children experiencing homelessness. Working with fellow students, she revived and served as editor of the Journal of Undergraduate International Studies (JUIS), a magazine featuring the work of contributors from universities around the country.
“Lauren has been an outstanding undergraduate researcher in the lab, and she’s thoughtful, careful, and very highly engaged in the work she’s doing,” says MaryEllen MacDonald, a professor of psychology with whom Schilling worked as an undergraduate. “Her work in the lab has stoked her passion for research and graduate study, and I expect her to be a successful applicant to a top graduate program in her chosen area of research.”
Schilling was a Hilldale Scholar and one of only 18 juniors nationwide to win a Beinecke Scholarship in support of graduate studies. She is spending the year working in the UW Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab with psychology professor Mark Seidenberg and research assistant Matt Cooper Borkenhagen, expanding work on her senior honors thesis, related to early reading education. She eventually plans to pursue a PhD in psychology.