Around Davidson had a chance to catch up with some high school and college graduates this week as well as news of current collegians. Today we highlight Nora Munger, Patrick Lozada, Lauren White and tennis champ, Kathleen Elkins. We also have a Noteworthy Note about the fund raising end-of-school “Finale” coordinated by elementary students Spencer Barnes and James Schaul.
Giving her Valedictory Speech at Cannon School is Nora Munger
CANNON VALEDICTORIAN – NORA MUNGER
Congratulations to Nora Munger, a National Merit Scholar, who graduated at the top of her class at Concord’s Cannon School on May 20. Valedictorian of her class of 71 seniors, Nora is headed north to Northfield, Minn., to enter Carleton College in the fall. She is thinking initially of a concentration in science – perhaps biology or chemistry.
Nora is the daughter of Dave and Greta Munger of McConnell and younger sister of Jim, who has just finished his first year at Berklee College of Music in the heart of Boston, MA. Nora enjoys playing the bassoon and has loved playing with the Davidson College Symphony Orchestra in the past years. She looks forward to continuing her music as a part of Carleton’s lively music community.
This summer, Nora will be in Alaska with an Outward Bound program including sea kayaking and mountaineering. She will also visit family in Washington state.
Kathleen Elkins (left) and her doubles partner (Caroline Capute) posing with the championship trophy
NCAA TENNIS CHAMPION – KATHLEEN ELKINS
You may remember news last year about Kathleen Elkins who graduated from Woodlawn and was going to Williams College to play tennis. Kathleen Elkins, who has just completed her freshman year at Williams College in Massachusetts, is back in Davidson after contributing significantly to helping Williams win the NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis championship in Claremont, CA. In the finals, Williams beat Amherst in a very close 5-4 match, and Kathleen was the only Williams player to score victories in that match in both singles and doubles. Congratulations to Kathleen, daughter of Diane and Hugh Elkins of River Run. How nice that we can boast of having an NCAA champion in our midst.
Special thanks to Allain Andry who alerted us to this tennis victory. Eloise Andry, daughter of Allain and Mary Catherine Andry, is a good friend of Kathleen’s and also just completed her freshman year at Williams.
Patrick and Michael Lozada
Glad to know that Haverford College continues to keep DavidsonNews.net informed about students with Davidson connections. Recently they sent a news release to announce the graduation of Patrick Lozada, son of Eriberto (“Fuji” to friends in Davidson) and Rebecca Ruhlen Lozada of Davidson, N.C. Patrick, a graduate of North Mecklenburg Senior High School, was one of 299 members of Haverford’s Class of 2011 recognized at commencement exercises on May 15 in Haverford, PA. He received a bachelor’s degree in History, with a minor in Chinese. Present to cheer for him were his parents, his brother Michael (9), his grandparents and other extended family.
The title of Patrick’s Senior Thesis, which is the capstone of the Haverford academic experience, is “Taking up the Dragon: A Case Study of Chinese-White Intermarriage in the Early 20th Century.” His thesis research was conducted at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkley and funded by a grant from the Haverford College Center for peace and Global Citizenship.
Patrick Lozada posed with his family.
While studying at Haverford, Patrick was involved in a variety of campus activities including the Office of Multicultural Affairs. He also worked to inform incoming freshmen about issues of race, gender, class and sexuality. Through a summer program with the University of Pennsylvania, he produced the film, “Legacy of Courage: W.E.B. DuBois and the Philadelphia Negro,” for use in a curriculum for a mandatory city-wide African-American history course. In addition, he worked as a Lab Monitor for the Haverford College Instructional Technology Center for two years, as well as a Research Assistant for the Anthropology Department. During an internship in Huangshi, China, he was a Teaching Assistant at the Huangshi Institute of Technology and gave lectures about American culture and life to students studying English. And last but not least, Patrick ran the intramural ice hockey league, “Lame Ducks,” for three years. A busy four years of college for this young man!
This summer Patrick will be busy cataloging a collection of documents from a Quaker who was in China in the early mid-20th century until he and his family were expelled from China by the Communist Party. Later this summer, Patrick will move to Washington, DC, to begin work for the Friends Committee on national Legislation.
Two weeks after their weekend in Haverford, Dad Fuji and young son, Michael, traveled to Boston for Fuji’s 25th college reunion at Harvard over the Memorial Day weekend. This reunion weekend followed right on the heels of Harvard’s commencement where we caught up with recent graduate Lauren White.
Surrounding Harvard graduate Lauren White are (l-r) Bill Schaffer, Trisha White, Craig White, Jeanie White, Krista White, Pat Schaffer and Robert White
Congratulations to Lauren White who graduated from Harvard College on May 27. Parents, Craig and Trisha White, sister, Krista, and grandparents, Bill and Pat Schaffer of Cornelius and Robert and Jeanie White of Davidson, had a great time in Cambridge for Lauren’s graduation. Amy Poehler gave the Class Day speech which is pretty funny if you happen to have 15 minutes of idle time and want to hear what she had to say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7N_L_pu74k .
Lauren graduated magna cum laude in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard College and received the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship to paint and become involved in community art initiatives for a year in Buenos Aires leaving for Argentina later in the summer. We are eager to hear her plans when she returns from this marvelous year in South America.
Lauren’s sister, Krista, has finished her sophomore year at Duke, is on the Dean’s List, and has declared a psychology major. She is going to Madrid for fall semester. Good time for Mom Trisha and Dad Craig to work on their Spanish since both daughters will be on different continents working on their language skills.
As to what the White young ladies are doing this summer: Lauren returns to Boston where she continues research on the mechanics of forefoot running and work in the Cambridge homeless shelter; Krista is an intern doing community-based asthma research in Charlotte.
Presenting their check to Natasha Rivera, Development Director at Ada Jenkins Center, are Spencer Barnes (l) and James Shaul.
On May 14th, 10 year old Davidsonians James Shaul and Spencer Barnes hosted a festival on The McConnell Green. Called “Finale,” it celebrated the end of the school year (almost) for the 4th and 5th graders from their Davidson Elementary School. It was a fund raiser to help out the Ada Jenkins Center. These young students had carnival games that they created, live music, snacks, and they arranged to have Donato’s Pizza and Ben and Jerry’s sell food. The event itself was really well-attended and the boys and their committee had a great time working at the event. They raised over $100 for the LEARN Works Program at Ada Jenkins Center which they presented to Natasha Rivera early in June. Congrats to James and Spencer for a great idea to benefit a good cause.
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Have news for Around Davidson? Write to Brenda Barger at hbarger@bellsouth.net.
