Prestigious Dean’s Grants Awarded to Best and Brightest

24 students entering University of Chicago awarded $5,000 each

They have visited Antarctica, written for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and assisted in scientific research at the National Science Foundation and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Now 24 of the country’s most interesting students will be entering the University of Chicago in the fall–and to help ensure they will continue to do exceptional work, the University has awarded each of them a prestigious Dean’s Grant.

The Dean’s Grant is an award of $5,000 that the students may use at any time during their undergraduate career to support further study in their field of choice. They can use the grant for research, travel or any opportunity that would enhance their education.

The winners are high school leaders who approached their academic and extracurricular life with creativity, perseverance and vigor.

The students include:

• Jameene Banks of Chicago, who traveled to the South Pole as part of a National Science Foundation astronomy program after participating in the University of Chicago’s Space Explorers program;
• April Adams of Birmingham, Ala. who won an honorable mention in the national Emmet O’Neal Poetry Contest and who did research in the Sinai Hospital Pathology Department and the Morgan State University Biology Department;
• Anne Newman of St. Louis, who has been honored by the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism for her work as a journalist and whose articles have been featured in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch;
• Justin Seidner of Houston, who has written and directed numerous plays as well as performed in a wide variety of theater productions at the Stratford Playhouse, ComedySportz and other venues;
• Michael Shecket of Ohio, who studied at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and who plays bass guitar in a band called Cheese;
• Issac Meyers of New York, who has mastered Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew, has volunteered as a researcher at the New York Historical Society, and has won two scholastic art awards from the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Inc.

“Dean’s Grant winners are remarkable people who seek to explore a wide range of interests,” said John W. Boyer, Dean of the College at the University of Chicago. “We think of the Dean’s Grant as a vehicle to support students in their explorations, whatever the topic.”

One of the most highly selective academic institutions in the country, the University of Chicago has 3,900 undergraduates. Approximately half of the 1,000 entering freshman students each year are ranked in the top 5 percent of their high school classes and about three-quarters are in the top 10 percent.

The student-faculty ratio is 6 to 1 and the size of the average discussion class is 25. Almost 90 percent of the University’s arts and sciences faculty members regularly teach undergraduates.