Thank-A-Giver Day (TAG Day) is Monday, February 10. This day provides the IWU campus community with the opportunity to thank donors who support Illinois Wesleyan. IWU celebrates each year in mid-February because it marks the symbolic point during the academic year – about 70% of the way through – when we rely on support from alumni and friends, our endowment, and external grants.
If you would like to be celebrated as a donor today, you can make a gift at iwu.edu/give.
Amanda Macuiba ’16 qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon, set to take place in February. Amanda ran the California International Marathon in 2:44:29, beating the qualifying time of 2:45:00. Click here to read more about Amanda’s accomplishment.
Good luck, Amanda! We are rooting for you!
Melissa Umansky ’16 and David Podrazik ’15 were married on September 21st, 2019 at the IWU Evelyn Chapel surrounded by family and friends, with many IWU alumni in attendance. Alumni Nolan Valdivia ’17, Brian Yager ’17, and Erica Podrazik ’10 were all members of the bridal party.
Wishing a heartfelt congratulations to the newlyweds!
Zack Talbert ’16 has won the Morrison Swine Innovator Prize for his design to improve the efficiency of fumigating rooms in the pork industry. To read more about his accomplishment, click here.
University of Minnesota veterinary professor Perle Zhitnitskiy, DVM, MSpVM, congratulates Morrison Swine Innovator Prize winner Zack Talbert, a University of Illinois veterinary student
Congratulations, Zack!!
Matt Mason ’16 composed a piece called Reflections on Ichimu’s Death Dream in which famed New York clarinetist Thomas Piercy performed —alongside Mason—on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall. To read more about Mason’s unique and exciting opportunity, click here.
Congratulations, Matt!
You did it, Titans! You were the key to our success. On April 11, 2,205 donors collectively raised $518,316. And thanks to the generosity of our pacesetter challenge donors, our grand total is $776,316 (and still counting!)
This video captures a few successes from #AllInforWesleyan. Check out the social media activity and revisit iwu.edu/all-in to see how your gifts made a difference.
Check out the All In Happy Hours taking place around the country. Show your Titan pride by spreading the word about All In for Wesleyan to your personal networks via social media, calls, texts, emails, etc.
You’ll have a great time while encouraging others to make an additional gift on All In and share stories about how IWU Unlocked Opportunities for each of us. Visit our webpage for more information and registration.
On April 11, alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends of IWU show your pride and support by being All In for Wesleyan. During this 24-hour giving day, let’s unlock opportunities together – you are key to our success!
Be All In, All Day, make an additional gift at iwu.edu/all-in and spread the word on social media using#AllInforWesleyan. Check out our social media toolkit!
Sydney Muchnik ’16 was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Yale University.
The highly selective NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program accepts 2,000 applicants from a nationwide pool of undergraduates in STEM fields. Fellows – such as Muchnik – receive a three-year annual stipend of $34,000, as well as an additional $12,000 to cover education costs to conduct research at any U.S. graduate institution of their choice. Fellows also benefit from the international reputation of the program, which includes numerous Nobel Prize winners, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu as former Fellows.
As an Illinois Wesleyan undergraduate student, Muchnik was active in the campus community where she served as President of the Math Honors Society and Vice President of Colleges Against Cancer. She also worked as a Resident Assistant and a Residential Community Advisor. In addition, Muchnik gained experience as an intern for Advocate BroMenn Volunteer Services, where she completed an extensive research project on the history of the Brokaw School of Nursing at IWU.
During her senior year, Muchnik joined Miner Linnaeus Sherff Endowed Professor of Botany David Bollivar in his laboratory, where she worked on a project involving bacteriochlorophyll biosynthesis. When describing Muchnik’s work, Bollivar said, “She had a talent for seeing the greater picture while still focusing on the details needed for success in the laboratory.”
Through her fellowship, Muchnik will continue her passion for laboratory research in the Genetics Department at Yale. Her current thesis project explores how changes in regulatory regions of DNA can shed light on how genetics have driven the evolution of distinctly human aspects of brain function and development. To do so, she will study gene transcription and modification at different stages of a human brain’s development and compare her findings to the gene sequences found in non-human primates.
Muchnik has already conducted research in the Biomedical Engineering department at Yale, where she worked alongside a professor to develop a technique for single-cell cytokine secretion in real time, a process used to activate latent HIV cells for study in the lab.
See the full article here.
Congratulations, Sydney!
