At home with classical antiquities
Sarah Costrell '10
Major: ClassicsMinor: Math
Fayetteville, Ark.
Classics major Sarah Costrell has already curated her first exhibition of classical antiquities, drawn from the university’s permanent collection of more than 800 artifacts. Her exhibition, “Leisure in the Ancient World,” is the culmination of a yearlong internship in which she and two other students researched and documented artifacts in the collection.
“I have really enjoyed my academic experience here,” says Costrell. “The opportunities for undergraduate research have made an immense difference in the extent to which I have immersed myself in this discipline, and the erudition and warmth of the Brandeis classics faculty help create a great community for learning.”
In summer 2009, she plans to study abroad in Siena, Italy, and to participate in an archeological dig in Populonia and a study tour of the Bay of Naples. In fall 2009, she will be an undergraduate departmental representative for classics.
Marrying learning with experience
Lauren Kraus '10
Major: EnglishMinor: Environmental Studies
Columbus, Ohio
Lauren Kraus always knew she wanted to major in English and work with literature professionally. This summer she’ll get her first opportunity to do that through a Sorensen Fellowship, a $4,000 stipend to cover travel and living expenses for an overseas internship. The grant will send her to the southern African country of Lesotho, where she’ll work as an intern with an artists’ collective dedicated to producing children’s books in the native language of Sesotho.“I took the opportunity to meander through the liberal arts and have loved my courses. This internship is a great way of marrying experiential and academic learning,” she says.
Then there is the social aspect of the college equation. Kraus has won a coveted job as a community advisor in her senior year, coordinating programs for her dormitory quad (and enjoying free housing). Which leaves just enough time to teach Sunday school, work at Chum’s (the campus coffee house), and stay involved in the Free Play theatre group.
She follows with aplomb her own advice: “Make yourself intelligent, read a lot and become engaged.”
The stretching of the mind
Rebecca Sniderman '10
Majors: Sociology, PhilosophyMinors: Social Justice and Social Policy; Health: Science, Society and Policy
Barrington, R.I.
The president of her a cappella group, Too Cheap for Instruments, which recently recorded its second CD, Rebecca Sniderman dances with the Ballroom Dance Club and sings with the Brandeis University Chorus.She also conducts research in sociology with the Mississippi Truth and Reconciliation Project, which explores anti-civil rights violence. The project attempts to achieve broader justice and reconciliation within communities.
“I have made truly wonderful connections with the amazing professors at Brandeis,” says Sniderman. “The classes I have taken at Brandeis, particularly those within the sociology department and the ethics classes within the philosophy department, have allowed me to really stretch my mind and beliefs and to question how this world functions. I have improved my skills as a leader and a thinker and I will cherish that forever.”