Joseph Daniels will depart for Nicaragua on Aug.13 to begin training as an environmental education volunteer with the Peace Corps.

I wanted to let everyone know that starting on July 1st, I will become a paid intern and takeover the intern coordinator position for Senator Mark Kirk. I am very excited and a little nervous. I wanted to thank all of you for support, advice, and time you have given me these last year or so. You have all been instrumental in my professional and personal development and could not have done it without you. I have been truly lucky to have met such good advisers and friends.

Sincerely,

John

Recent graduates Brittany Levens and Rebecca Candra and Amy Seter ’15 have been chosen as All-American Scholars for 2012-13 by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association.

Logan Kent was selected among the top 10 semi-finalists in Entrepreneur Magazine’s college entrepreneur contest for his Mail To business idea.

Lisa Peltekian was named the University’s Outstanding Marketing Student by the St. Louis professional chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA).  Peltekian was honored at the chapter’s 52nd annual student marketing conference on Friday, Feb. 22 in St. Louis.

On March 5, 2013 Neil Baldwin was one of the five 2012 Illinois Heartland Section American Chemical Society (ACS) Collegiate Scholars honored.  ACS awards the honor to recipients based on their grade point average, contributions to research in the field and overall involvement in activities.

Baldwin worked with Professor of Chemistry Ram Mohan since the second semester of his sophomore year, which concluded at the end of his junior year. He has worked on developing environmentally friendly organic synthesis using iron compounds. Iron compounds are relatively non toxic, easy to handle and inexpensive. In particular, his work has focused on converting alcohols to esters. In the past, many corrosive or toxic catalysts have been used for the same transformation.

Jordan Kuhns, a senior business marketing major from Winterset, Iowa, recently was a runner up in the National Hazing Prevention Week CAMPUSPEAK poster contest.

CAMPUSPEAK and HazingPrevention.org teamed in 2012 to launch the inaugural, not-for-profit National Hazing Prevention Week poster contest as a way to empower people to stop hazing in university student groups

Kuhns, who is an alum of the Sigma Pi fraternity, wanted to incorporate his love for design by participating in the poster contest and began creating his poster to spread his message with simplicity. “Hazing is a hard thing to deal with if you have ever witnessed or experienced it, so I came up with a simple poster to make people feel at ease when informing others about hazing and also preventing it in their communities,” said Kuhns.  The poster has a three-color scheme of green, orange and blue and across the center are three colored bars with the slogan, “Know, Decide, Act.” Each text has a corresponding illustration.  “The word ‘Know’ has a light bulb, which symbolizes the necessity to understand what hazing is. ‘Decide’ has a ‘Fork in the Road’ sign, symbolizing the need to decide whether or not your organization is hazing. ‘Act’ has an arrow which symbolizes the need to act on what you’ve just witnessed without delay,” said Kuhns.

The trust is founded by Japanese businessman and honorary Illinois Wesleyan trustee Kenji Tanaka and honors those who are committed to promoting and improving international relations around the world.Illinois Wesleyan University senior Sarah Takushi has been named the 2013 recipient of the Technos International Prize through the Tanaka Ikueikai Educational Trust in Japan.

Takushi, an international studies and biology double major from Skokie Ill., was unanimously chosen by the International Studies Steering Committee to receive the prestigious award due to her high academic standard and contribution towards raising international awareness on campus.

Dedicating her time to being an active and well rounded student, Takushi has volunteered as an interpreter for Global Medical Brigades in Honduras along with working as an intern at the Western Community Outreach Center in Bloomington, where she interpreted for families from Cuba, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. She has also volunteered her services at the Community Health Clinic where she worked with underprivileged immigrant populations.

Takushi also completed a semester abroad in Ecuador, where she worked with the Comparative Ecology and Conservation program. Her academic experience in Ecuador resulted in the creation of her special project on the local ecology as well as her recent research honors project on current cultural and political issues.

Beginning on June 1 of this year, based on her academic record, Takushi will take part in a special internship that will be in an immunology laboratory in Germany, where she will work on medical issues related to HIV.