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Outstanding seniors win Warner and Taylor awards
2:36 p.m., May 5, 2006--Dalit Gulak of Harpswell, Maine, has received the Emalea Pusey Warner Award as the outstanding senior woman, and Thomas Isherwood of Wichita, Kan., has received the Alexander J. Taylor Sr. Award as the outstanding senior man, both given by the University of Delaware Alumni Association. The $2,000 awards honor leadership, academic success and community service as exemplified by Mrs. Warner and Mr. Taylor. In addition, those considered for the awards must have a cumulative grade point index of 3.0 or better at the end of the first semester of their senior year. In addition to being recognized at Honors Day on May 5, the two seniors will lead the alumni delegates' procession at Commencement on May 27. Dalit Gulak Gulak, a senior foreign languages and literatures major and 2005 Truman Scholar, also is a Dean's Scholar in Hispanic culture and medicine. She will be joining Nurse-Midwifery/Women's Health Program in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., next year. Gulak said she received news of her selection as outstanding woman with a mixture of disbelief and incredible honor. “There are many amazing women in my senior class who have done outstanding work, and I am truly honored to be the one chosen to represent them,” she said.
Since winning the Truman Scholarship, Gulak has continued to volunteer on the campus ambulance, to serve in honor societies and to volunteer at a local birth center. Last summer, Gulak wrote a manual on cultural competency for Delaware's Division of Public Health. She also ran a diaper and baby formula drive on campus for young Hurricane Katrina victims and spent Winter Session doing volunteer work in a medical clinic in a rural part of the Dominican Republic. “I came from a small town in Maine with an open heart and a mind eager to learn from the most intelligent, admirable and supportive professors and advisers to ever bless a university campus,” Gulak said. “In particular, Dr. Susan McKenna and the Honors Program staff, who encouraged and supported my ideas and goals and inspired me to be where I am today. The opportunities I was given at Delaware were more than I expected. They gave me the freedom and support to follow my academic and nonacademic passions that culminated in my being honored with the Warner Award.” Gulak, who also spent the fall 2004 semester in the Dominican Republic, said she is planning to use the award money to pay for travel “to places where I can continue my passion to provide health care and education to underserved populations.” In a letter nominating Gulak, Jama Allegretto Lynch, associate director of UD's Honors Program, wrote, “Dalit is the kind of person who will always seek out opportunities to make a difference, to go beyond the stated expectations and look for ways to make a positive change in people's lives.” The Emalea Pusey Warner Award honors the late Mrs. Warner (1853-1948) who is remembered as a champion of education. In 1911, she became chairperson of the State Federation of Women's Clubs' Committee on Education, working diligently toward establishing a state-supported women's college in Delaware. She later became the first woman member of the Delaware College Board of Trustees. Both Warner Hall on the UD campus and Warner Elementary School in Wilmington are named in her honor. Thomas Isherwood Isherwood, a senior international relations major and 2005 Truman Scholar, was one of two University of Delaware students who won Marshall Scholarships last fall. Earlier this year, he was picked as a member of the 2006 USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team, which honors 20 full-time undergraduates who excel in scholarship and extend their intellectual abilities beyond the classroom to benefit society. Isherwood worked as a legal advisor with Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), an organization that provides legal aid to refugees in Cairo, Egypt. He had previously spent the spring semester in Cairo researching accountability in humanitarian organizations. In addition to his work with AMERA, he was a volunteer English teacher. Isherwood said that receiving the Taylor Award is a humbling honor. “I know other seniors who are very deserving and could have just as easily won this award,” he said. In a letter nominating Isherwood, Katharine Kerrane, senior associate director of UD's Honors Program, described him as an exceptional student. “Tom's capacity to move through rigorous programs and pursue fields of study beyond those programs is extraordinary,” Kerrane wrote. “As an incoming freshman, Tom was selected as a DuPont Scholar, the University of Delaware's most prestigious merit scholarship, and he has more than fulfilled his early academic promise.” Isherwood, who plans to use the award money to travel, said his “outstanding” experience at the University was made possible by encouragement and support from professors, administrators and advisers. The Marshall Scholarship, which covers university fees, cost-of-living expenses, an annual book grant, thesis grant, research and daily travel grants, as well as fares to and from the U.S., will enable Isherwood, who also will earn a master's degree in political science from UD, to study and conduct research in modern Middle Eastern studies at Oxford University in the United Kingdom for up to three years beginning next fall. Valedictorian of the Class of 1893 with a degree in civil engineering, Alexander J. Taylor Sr. (1875-1940) was an active alumnus who was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1927, 1932 and 1938, serving on the Grounds and Buildings Committee and the Executive Committee and chairing the Finance Committee. Taylor Hall was named in his honor. Article by Martin Mbugua |
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