Public health undergrads recognized as Buckley Public Service Scholars
May 8, 2014
Two hundred and fifty-one members of the class of 2014 will be honored as Buckley Public Service Scholars (BPSS) May 9 at a ceremony in Memorial Hall, highlighting their years of service while at Carolina. All graduates will receive a Carolina blue and white cord to wear at commencement to represent their achievement.
Among the honorees are 27 Gillings School of Global Public Health students who have earned the Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree in biostatistics, environmental health sciences, health policy and management or nutrition.
About 9 percent of Carolina undergraduates are enrolled in the program. Participants must have a minimum grade-point average, complete at least 300 hours of service, take one service-learning course, attend four skills-training workshops and complete a final reflection activity to graduate as a Buckley Scholar. Most of this year’s graduates exceeded these requirements, on average completing more than 450 hours of service.
Since the program’s inception, more than 5,600 students have participated, contributing more than 1.35 million hours of service. Including the 2014 graduating class, 1,616 have gone on to become Buckley Scholars.
Public health students graduating as Buckley Public Service Scholars include:
- Pooja Aphale, Kelsey Gustaveson, Madeleine Hindenlang, Yvonne Nguyen, Conor O’Neill, Samantha Tulenko and Linda Yang, in environmental health sciences (Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering);
- Akilah Ffriend, Savan Kothadia, Emily Ott, Sheila Patel, Vishalee Patel, Anna Perry, Ann Scavone, Hannah Smith, Neha Vennekkat and Madhulika Vulimiri, in the Department of Health Policy and Management;
- Natalie Allcott, Gwen Hwarng, Matthew Meyers, Paula Munoz, Kelsey Pan, Nikita Patel, Elizabeth Rossitch, Rick Vavolizza and Alekhya Yechoor, in the Department of Nutrition; and
- Courtney Sanford, in the Department of Biostatistics.
The Buckley Public Service Scholars program was launched in 2003. Thanks to the establishment of an endowment by Walter White Buckley Jr. in 2011, Buckley Public Service Scholars will graduate for generations to come.
Read more about the 2013-2014 Buckley Public Service Scholars online.
Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu.