Student Awards 2018-2019

Amanda Flores (Honors BS Finance, BAFLL Chinese) won the Confucius Institute Outstanding Student Award for a Graduating Major.

Emma Greenberg (Psychology major, Chinese minor), Terran Mardis (English and Three Languages major), and Alex Tran (Marketing and Asian Studies major, Chinese minor) won 2019 Taiwan-US Alliance (TUSA) Summer Scholarship award to study in Taiwan during the summer of 2019. 

Student Honors-TAPIF fellows selected

Five graduating UD seniors, all French majors or minors, were selected to participate in the French Government's Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) in 2019-2020. Program fellows spend an academic year in France, teaching English to schoolchildren and adolescents while immersing themselves in French language and culture as they interact with their host communities. The successful applicants were Devon Grant (BS Medical Diagnostics, French minor 2019), Megan Bahnson (BS Cognitive Science, French minor 2019), Penelope Velasco (BA International Relations, French minor 2019), Rosalie Baseman, and Ryan Richardson (Honors BA English and Public Policy, French minor 2019). Of the five, three have decided to spend the year in France. Devon was placed in Amiens and Penelope in Reims, both cities in the north of France; Megan will be spending the year in the south, in Nice.

Student Honors-Braun Awards

Graduating seniors Rosalie Basemann (Honors BA Communication and BAFLL French 2019) and Ruth Mandel (Honors BS Chemistry, BAFLL French, Japanese minor) received the Theodore E.D. Braun Undergraduate Award for excellence in French Studies. Master's degree recipients Mackenzie Campbell (Honors BAFLL Three Languages 2017, MAFLL French 2019) and Aurélien Cavelier (MAFLL French 2019) were awarded the Theodore E.D. Braun Graduate Prize for their outstanding performance in French Studies. These four students were recognized at the French Honors Ceremony in early May, and they received their certificates, cash prizes, and ceremonial oranges at the Department's Convocation ceremony. Campbell and Cavelier also received letters of commendation for their outstanding contributions as French teaching assistants for our Department.

French Honors Ceremony/Pi Delta Phi

This year's French Honors Ceremony and Pi Delta Phi induction were held on Monday, May 6. Dr. Edgard Sankara, serving as Master of Ceremonies, presented the French Advocate of the Year Award to Dr. Kaja Jasinska of the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science for her work studying and promoting childhood literacy in Ivory Coast. A second guest of honor, Mme Mathilde Labrégère of the French Consulate, officially congratulated the student awardees and informed them about educational opportunities in France. Graduating seniors Marley Duchovnay and Rosalie Baseman recited French poems, and first-year student Ankita Prasad embellished the event with a violin performance. Ankita and forty-two other outstanding intermediate-level students received certificates of excellence. Pi Delta Phi President Rosalie Baseman and Vice President Ruth Mandel led the Honor Society initiation, officially inducting into the society undergraduates Alexandra Bennett, Jamie Cleveland, Marley Duchovnay, Grace Michaels, Kaitlin Shorr, Ryan Vansant, and Master's degree candidates Merlin Gray and Eleonora Mancuso.  

Matthew Gargano (Honors Mathematics and Computer Science major, German minor) was awarded the Marion E. Wiley Memorial Award, which recognizes the accomplishments of a non-major student in German beyond the intermediate level.

Halina Maas (Applied Music-Instrumental—Bassoon Major, German minor), Kyle Stevens (Cognitive Science major), and Tanner Chase Wilkinson (BS Neuroscience, BAFLL German 2019) received the 2018 Fulda Awards, comprehensive scholarships for the international summer language program held at the Fachhochschule Fulda in Germany.

Marius Sander (Honors BS Cognitive Science, BA Philosophy, BAFLL German 2019) earned the $1000 Sepp Hilsenrad Memorial Award, which acknowledges outstanding work in German at the advanced level.

Ian Snell (Three Languages major) and Liam Warren (BS Energy and Environmental Policy, German minor 2019) received the German-American-Federation Scholarship to study at a German university for one year.

Bethany Christie (Honors Three Languages major), Aron Possler (Biology major), and Jenna Newman (Honors Communication major) were awarded the Delaware Sängerbund Language Awards for the top students on the GRMN105, 106, and 107 levels.

Honors Day Ceremony

As we do each year, the Italian program celebrated our students' academic excellence at our annual Honors Day ceremony and banquet in May with guest speaker Dr. Federica Bianco, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UD (as well as professional boxer and recent TED fellow).  We had a great audience of over eighty students, faculty, and family, cheering on as fourteen students were inducted into Gamma Kappa Alpha, the national Italian Honor Society. At the ceremony, Luciana Vernola (Italian and Three Languages major) received the Italian Faculty Award, Laura Matista (Honors Cognitive Science major, Italian minor) was given the Di Pietro/Essay Award, Allison Chelst (BAFLL Three Languages 2019) received the Slavov Award, Vanessa Coppola (Honors Cognitive Science major, Italian minor) and Caleigh Bauer Honors International Relations major, Italian minor) were awarded the Giuseppe Verdi Award, and Matthew Bleacher (Italian major) and Nicholas Finelli (Biology and Italian major) received the Da Vinci Society Award. Nicholas also accepted the Italo Americans United award with Edoardo Frezza (BS Neuroscience, BAFLL Italian 2019) and Jeannette Vivanco (BA Political Science, Italian minor 2019), and he was awarded the top honor for his outstanding academic achievements, the Roberto J. Di Pietro Plaque. We look forward to welcoming Nick into the Italian M.A. program next year as our inaugural 4+1 M.A. candidate!

Student Internships

Miranda Armiger (MA candidate in Italian) began an internship at Wintherthur during the summer of 2019 as part of her interdisciplinary program of study in Italian, Art History, and Museum Studies.

Danielle Iacovelli (International Relations major and Three Languages major) held an internship in the Economics Section at the American Embassy in Rome, Italy this summer. Before beginning the internship Danielle wrote:  "I will be serving ten weeks during the months of June to August. The Economic Section of the embassy is responsible for monitoring and managing the full range of economic relations between the U.S. and Italy. During my time as a State Department intern, I will be responsible for writing reports and assisting in day-to-day operations of the embassy. Additionally, I will be attending events in which prominent American and Italian figures will be present and I will have the opportunity to meet the American Ambassador to Italy, Lewis M. Eisenberg. This internship will help me forge connections and build important skills, such as communication, diplomacy, report-style writing, and the day-to-day operations of a U.S. embassy or consulate. My Italian will both aid me in my internship and improve from my extended time in Italy this summer. My internship in Rome can be a launching board for my career post-graduation, and I believe it only holds great things for my education and future." 

2019 Japanese National Honor Society Inductees:

We were proud to add eleven more of our graduating seniors to the Japanese National Honor Society. We celebrated with a lunch at Kumamoto Ramen. Please see the photograph of our inductees. Photo from front left: Kayla Mango, Ray Mandel, Nicole Moylett, Shirley Zhang, Eric VanLuvanee-(JAPN faculty), Dr. Mark Miller (JAPN faculty), Justin Hirt, Evan Lowitt, Jacob Hoffman, Omasan Oribioye, Jamie Cleveland. Not photographed but also being inducted are Brea Harris and Yao Lu.

2019 UD Japanese Haiku Contest Winners

Haiku Contest Winners

We held our annual Haiku contest in May of this year. Here is this year's overall best haiku poem and the names of the runner-up winners at each level. 

Best Overall:           Yin  Luo　(JAPN 200-level)

冬は言う                    Winter says

春に会いたい           I want to meet you, spring

片思い                         Unrequited love

Runners-up: JAPN105: Fangqi Dong & Shanglun Cai; JAPN106 & 107: Yixuan Song; JAPN301 & 455: Nicole Moylett.

Study Abroad Award Winners

We sent Zachary Smith (Biochemistry and Japanese major) and Peter Lam (Mathmatics and Economics and Japanese major) to Soka University on our prestigious one-year scholarships to study Japanese in September of 2018 and selected Nicole Moylett (B Mechanical Engineering, BA Asian Studies, BAFLL Japanese 2019) and Makoto Saitoh (Mechanical Engineering major, Japanese minor) as recipients for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Maria Chudzik (Anthropology and Communication major, Global Studies minor) received a $400 Yotsukura award to participate in UD's study abroad program at Akita International University in the fall of 2018.

Graduating Seniors Receiving Yotsukura Awards

These individuals demonstrated outstanding scholastic achievement in their Japanese studies:

Evan Lowitt (Honors BA Asian Studies, BAFLL Three Languages, and BAFLL Japanese 2019) is originally from Syosset, NY. During the Fall 2017 semester he studied abroad at Kwansei Gakuin University near Osaka, Japan. He is also an alumnus of the Middlebury Chinese School. Upon graduating, he will be employed as an English instructor at a private bilingual school in Jiaxing, China, and hopes to later become a Foreign Service Officer.

Jacob Hoffman (BS Computer Science, BS Cognitive Science, BA Linguistics, BAFLL Japanese 2019) is from Lower Moreland, PA. Jacob was one of only two annual awardees to receive a full scholarship to study Japanese at Soka University. This fall Jacob will begin a graduate program in Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington. Later in his life he hopes to contribute to engineering and improving language technology.

Ruth Mandel (Honors BS Chemistry, BAFLL French, Japanese minor) is from Bucks County, PA. She studied abroad in Fall of 2018 through TASSEP (Trans-Atlantic Science Student Exchange Program) in Paris and studied at Sorbonne University. This fall she will be attending Cornell University for a PhD in Analytical Chemistry.

​Rebecca King (Russian major and Geography major) will be studying in St. Petersburg this summer on CLS. She previously spent the 2017-18 academic year studying Russian and Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan on a Boren Award. 

Ryan VanSant (BAFLL Spanish, French minor 2019) received the "Best Essay in Hispanic Literature Survey Courses" award for "El papel simbólico de los investigadores en  "El tragaluz.."

Maria del Graça de Lucena e Vale (Honors BA International Relations, BAFLL Spanish 2019) was awarded the "Best Essay in Upper-division Hispanic Literature and Culture Courses" award for "La hora de los hornos: film catalizador de la insurrección."

Pedro Villalba Moral (MA Candidate in Spanish) earned the "Best Graduate Student Essay in Spanish" for Recipient:  for his essay titled "Reseña crítica:  La mitad del alma."

Estefania Villalobos (BAFLP Spanish 2019) was awarded the "Spanish Education Major Award" for the student majoring in Spanish Education with the highest cumulative index.

Daniel Schaefer (BA Linguistics, BAFLL Spanish 2019) received the "Sigma Delta Pi Book Award" for the new initiate majoring in Spanish with the highest cumulative index.