May 14, 2018

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Congratulations to all our students – seniors, master’s students, and PhD candidates – whose hard work and dedication culminate at our commencement activities this weekend.

At last count, 420 seniors in the Class of ’18 will be eligible to cross the stage to receive their diplomas at Kodak Hall this Sunday. This includes 127 females (30.2%), 101 international students (24.0%) and 43 underrepresented minority students (10.2%).

Computer science once again leads the way with 105 graduating seniors, followed by mechanical engineering with 74 and biomedical engineering with 72.

But mere numbers don’t begin to convey the stories that each of our students could tell about the paths they’ve followed to reach this important stage in their lives. We celebrate those stories.

Commencement is also an opportunity for our University to recognize outstanding benefactors, alumni, and teachers. We are very proud that Wyatt Tenhaeff, assistant professor of chemical engineering, will receive the G. Graydon Curtis ’58 and Jane W. Curtis Award for Nontenured Faculty Teaching Excellence. Since joining the faculty in 2013, Wyatt has received high marks for teaching chemical reactor design, and has supervised undergraduate research assistants who have coauthored papers, been recognized by multiple local organizations, and presented at regional and national conferences. (Read more here.)

We are excited to welcome Margo Georgiadas, former CEO of Mattel, now CEO at Ancestry, who will deliver the College commencement address. As you may recall, Margo joined me during Meliora Weekend in a conversation, “Inspiring the Next Generation of Leaders in a World Transformed by Globalization and Technology.” Her son Andreas will also be part of Sunday’s ceremonies; he is one our computer science graduating seniors.

Congratulations as well to:

Janet Sorrells ’17, ’18 (T5) of biomedical engineering who has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and will pursue a PhD in bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research project will be in the field of biophotonics. Recent BME graduates Megan Routzong ’16, now at University of Pittsburgh, and Brittany Schutrum ’17, now at Cornell, also received fellowships. Mitchell Gordon ’16 of computer science, now at Stanford, received an honorable mention.
Ninoshka Fernandes, a PhD student in biomedical engineering, and the other members of the Humans for Education team who won first place and $10,000 in the social entrepreneurship/nonprofit track of the statewide intercollegiate New York Business Plan Competition recently. More than 100 teams competed in six tracks in the finals event hosted at SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Albany NanoTech Complex. Humans for Education creates sustainable, culturally sensitive small businesses to generate income for schools in developing countries in Africa.
Three Hajim students who are on two teams selected to receive $10,000 grants from Davis Projects for Peace, a highly competitive national program that promotes peace and intercultural understanding. Shingirai Dhoro ’20 of electrical and computer engineering and Ashely Tenesaca ’20 of computer science will begin a project in Dzimiri village in southern Zimbabwe titled “Water for Peace: Solving Mukwerera Conflict through Provision of Sustainable Water Supply.” Philemon Rono ’21 of mechanical engineering and Bienfait Mugenza ’21 of political science will run “Peace through Entrepreneurship,” a one-week workshop to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, this summer. This is the first time two pairs of University of Rochester students have been selected for these prestigious grants. Read more here.
Joseph Plvan-Franke ’17 (T5), a dual major in computer science and linguistics, who has accepted a 2018–19 grant in the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Grant program to be an English Teaching Assistant in Laos. After his year abroad, he plans to attend graduate school to study TESOL (teaching English as a second language).

Please join me at our Hajim School reception and barbecue picnic from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday on the Hajim Quadrangle and later that same day at the Hajim Commencement Ceremony at 3 p.m. at Kodak Hall in the Eastman Theatre. It will be a great opportunity to join together as a community. We have so much to celebrate. So, let’s make the most of it!

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman