Opportunity Programs

New York Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush (R-122nd District) visited Hamilton College on May 16. He responded to an invitation made during New York Student Aid Alliance Advocacy Day in February in Albany, N.Y., when a group of Hamilton students visited the state capital.  Director of Opportunity Programs Phyllis Breland ’80 said, “He took the time to show that he cared about the experiences and opinions of our Opportunity Program students.”

Phyllis Breland ’80, director of Opportunity Programs and Pathways, has been named the recipient of the Tri-State Consortium of Opportunity Programs in Higher Education Alumni Award for 2013. She was honored at an award banquet on April 9 in Elizabeth, N.J.

Galia Slayen ’13, a Chinese and government major, has been accepted as a delegate to Forum for American-Chinese Exchange at Stanford University (FACES).  FACES is an exchange program that sends 20 American and 20 Chinese students to Stanford University and then to China to promote cross-cultural exchange. Forty delegates were chosen from among 316 applicants.

Hillary “Kip” Langat ’13 has been awarded a Davis Peace Project Fellowship program grant of $10,000.  Through his project titled “Pulling Villages out of Poverty with a Community Tractor in Kenya,” Langat will help to empower people in three Kenyan villages by purchasing a community farming tractor and training them in farming techniques in an effort to break the cycle of poverty.

Victoria (Tori) Morrow ’14 has been awarded a summer fellowship at the University of Michigan to do work in classics and medieval studies through the university’s Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP).  The SROP brings talented underrepresented students to Ann Arbor to work with faculty mentors on research projects during two months in the summer. Morrow is a classics major.

Victoria (Tori) Morrow ’14 has been awarded a summer fellowship at the University of Michigan to do work in classics and medieval studies through the university’s Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP).  The SROP brings talented underrepresented students to Ann Arbor to work with faculty mentors on research projects during two months in the summer. Morrow is a classics major.

Ten Hamilton students traveled to Montreal to participate in the McGill University Model United Nations Assembly (McMUN), which convened January 26-29.  The conference drew more than 1,300 delegates to fill 25 different committees that focused on international relations in the Information Age.

Over winter break 15 students from Hamilton’s Model European Union club — as well as faculty advisor Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs — attended the 25th annual EuroSim conference in Wroclaw, Poland, from Jan. 5-8.  Each year, the EuroSim conference presents a different topic relating to European policy; the topic of this year’s conference was European asylum policy and the development of a common European asylum system.

Two Hamilton students have been selected as recipients of the Class of 1979 Student Travel Award. The award, established by the alumni of Hamilton’s Class of 1979, offers financial assistance to outstanding students who wish to pursue extensive research projects in different parts of the world.

Four Hamilton students have received grants from the Steven Daniel Smallen Memorial Fund. The recipients, all seniors, are Shawon Akanda, Nathaniel House, David Hyman and Haley Riemer-Peltz.