Three seniors, graduating from the College of Letters & Science, have been selected by Dean Eric M. Wilcots for the Dean’s Prize. Candidates for this award completed a minimum of 24 Honors Program credits, maintained a high grade-point average, and demonstrated evidence of the pillars of the Wisconsin Experience: empathy and humility, relentless curiosity, intellectual confidence, and purposeful action.
Abdullah Marei ’23, from Egypt, earned a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Psychology, with Honors. He has served as a research assistant in Dr. Ryan Herringa’s BRAVE Research Center, Dr. Markus Brauer’s Brauer Group Lab, and Dr. Gary Lupyan’s Language Augment Cognition Lab. Marei completed three independent research projects, investigating topics of white guilt and responsibility, cultural values of queer people of color, and PTSD treatments for children.
Marei is also the founder and president of the QTPOC student organization, which received a Bucky Award in 2022 for its mission to create community for students who hold multiple marginalized identities, fighting heteronormativity and white normativity. In addition, Marei has contributed to the work of the Multicultural Student Center, the Daily Cardinal, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the McBurney Disability Resource Center. Marei embodies purposeful action in all the work that he has done on campus.
“I believe Abdullah has had a tremendous impact on this university during his brief time on campus and when he leaves UW–Madison, I am confident that he will leave a lasting impact that everyone can feel,” says Kate Doran, Access Consultant and Study and Learning Skills Specialists Supervisor at the McBurney Disability Resource Center.
Marei will be attending graduate school at the University of Toronto to study social psychology. He received the University of Toronto’s Connaught International Fellowship for doctoral students, which Doran notes is the largest Canadian internal research funding program.
Reilly Coon ’23, from Arbor Vitae, Wis., earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in History (with Honors), Gender and Women’s Studies, and Political Science, with a Certificate in African Studies. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and an editor of ARCHIVE: the Undergraduate Journal of History. As a Bucky’s Classroom Coordinator for UW Connects, Coon has improved outreach and programming for college prep for seventh-grade students in Wisconsin. Coon is passionate about making higher education more accessible to students and has worked to maintain partners in the program across the state. Fran Puleo Moyer, Associate Director of Outreach for UW Connects, wrote about Reilly: “She has exhibited a strong passion for working with younger students and has shown exceptional dedication and pride in representing her university and personifying the Wisconsin Idea as a whole. She is clearly motivated by purposeful action in seeing the value in sharing the possibilities of higher education with youth who may have never heard the word ‘college’ in their homes or at school.” Coon has served on numerous boards including the University General Education Committee and Union Council, and the University Health Services Health Care Advisory Committee. Her studies and research as a History major prove her intellectual curiosity in the past, while her inclusion work on campus proves her dedication to the future.
Alanna Goldstein ’22, from Wilmette, IL., earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with Comprehensive Honors, majoring in Gender and Women’s Studies and Political Science, with a Certificate in LGBTQ+ Studies. “An outstandingly rigorous scholar-researcher who demonstrates through their work an ethics of curiosity, empathetic and dedicated minoritarian advocate, and committed community activist,” says Visual Studies Professor Jill Casid. Goldstein has displayed intellectual confidence in their scholarly LGBTQ+ advocacy work, writing a policy memo for the UW–Madison publication Sifting & Winnowing, entitled “‘Gay Panic Defense’ and ‘Trans Panic Defense’ in Wisconsin State Statute.” Goldstein’s other significant publications include a Sifting & Winnowing
conference paper, “Disabled Students of Color Are Facing Disparate Treatment at Chicago Public Schools” published in Sifting & Winnowing, and their Gender & Women’s Studies senior honors thesis, “Poetics as Disobedience: Reimagining Academic Debate.” Goldstein served as one of two undergraduate students on the campus-wide administrative LGBTQ+ Committee at UW–Madison. While a student, Goldstein worked for Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers as an Operations Assistant in the Constituent Services Department and for the Wisconsin Department of Administration, Office of the Secretary as the Legislative and Constituent Management Assistant. After graduation they worked as a Program and Policy Analyst in the Wisconsin Department of Administration, Division of Enterprise Operations. There, Goldstein helped to administer American Rescue Plan Act funding to organizations and Wisconsin communities in need of financial support as they recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Goldstein plans to continue working in civil service and pursue a career in public-interest law. Their well-rounded experience as a debate coach, LGBTQ+ advocate, government employee, and honors student exemplify the many possible paths to a profound and passionate liberal-arts education.