Students and Alumni

Class of 2013:

Kathryn Miller (Classical Studies '13)

Class of 2012:

Emily Hannenberg (Classical Studies '12)

Class of 2011:

Ilana Greenslade (Classical Studies & Archaeology '11)

Daniel Miller (Classical Studies '11)

Margaret Robertson (Classical Studies '11)

Anita Santos (Classical Studies '11)

Class of 2010:

Severn Bannow (Classical Studies '10)

Alicia Maggard (Classical Studies & History '10), has already won a number of prestigious fellowships and awards. In Spring 2009, she studied at the Intercollegate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, one of the most prestigious and most competitive study abroad programs in Classics. A term paper she wrote at the ICCS, entitled “The Supposed Separation of Collegium and State: Trajan and the Rise of Mercantile Associations”, won the 2009 Carl Knopf Award for Best Student Paper that is awarded by Willamette University's Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology (CASA). Alicia also won two important History fellowships. In summer 2009, she spent several weeks pursuing research for her senior thesis in History in Philadelphia through the SHEAR/Mellon Undergraduate Fellowship Program at the McNeil Center at the University of Pennsylvania. After that she headed to New York as a Gilder Lehrman History Scholar, where she visited historical collections and complete a research project on Abraham Lincoln.

Christina Peaslee (Classical Studies '10)

William Pilon (Classical Studies '10)
will attend John Cabot University in Rome during Fall 2009.

Class of 2009:

Tracy Carrithers (Classical Studies '09) cum laude; Departmental Honors
is going to attend the 1-year Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joe Daniels-Hall (Classical Studies & Chemistry '09)
is going to pursue an M.A. in Chemistry at the University of Oregon.

Melissa Magana (Classical Studies & Chemistry '09)
attended Willamette's archaeological fieldschool in Italy's Sangro Valley. Now she is hoping to go into restaurant management, cashing in on her experience as the Bistro's kitchen manager and as theater house manager of Willamette University's Theater Department.

Lauren Saxton (Classical Studies & History '09) cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa
studied for a semester with the College Year in Athens. She is about to enter the Ph.D. program in History at the CUNY Graduate School in New York City. She is looking forward to studying right across from the Empire State Building!

Class of 2008:

Ashley Buchheit (Classical Studies & History '08)
was admitted to the M.A. Program in Theological Studies at Princeton University’s Theological Seminary, but was allowed to postpone the start of her studies by one year so she could work at Willamette's sister campus across 12th Street, Tokyo International University in America, as Campus Life Assistant and Summer Community Coordinator.

Sara Foerster (Classical Studies '08)
spent a semester abroad at John Cabot University in Rome. After graduation, she completed the 1-year Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Gregory F. Henselman (Classical Studies & Mathematics, '08) Phi Beta Kappa
was a star athlete in Crew and Swimming. After graduation, he spent a year at the University of Oregon to take a combination of undergraduate and graduate courses in math in preparation for an M.A. or Ph.D. program in Mathematics.

Elizabeth Swensen (Classical Studies '08)
spent a semester at the prestigious Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. An aspiring writer and avid video gamer, she is now attending the Master of Fine Arts program in Interactive Media within the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.

Class of 2007:

Rositsa Atanasova (Classical Studies '07), Phi Beta Kappa
a native of Bulgaria, spent her study abroad in Paris studying French and Arabic in France and producing a documentary film about French Muslim women and the veil. She is now pursuing an M.A. in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School on a generous Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship (more info).

Jeffrey E. Johnson (Classical Studies '07), Phi Beta Kappa
who interned at a hospital in Bulgaria, is now attending medical school at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, one of the top-ranked clinical and medical research centers in the United States.

Class of 2006:

Brian P. Bowinski (Classical Studies '06)
was a Preproduction Administrator with Liberty Home Products in Denver, CO, then worked for Circuit City, the consumer electronics chain that has been hard hit by the current economic downturn. Just in time, Brian changed tracks again. In November 2008, he started teaching English in Namyanju, a suburb of Seoul, South Korea!

Mariah E. Smith (Classical Studies '06), Phi Beta Kappa
studied some German in Vienna and helped excavate a Roman garum factory in Troia, Portugal. She recently completed her M.A. in Classics at the University of Kansas (full scholarship). After a summer in Rome, she is now ready to enter the Ph.D. program in Classics at Indiana University.

James Timbrell (Classical Studies '06)
attended Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management on a merit-based scholarship and graduated with an MBA in May 2008. While a Classics major and Mathematics minor at the College of Liberal Arts, James was a NWC Cross Country Academic All-Star, acclaimed food critic for the Willamette Collegian, and sometime free-lance writer for the Statesman Journal. As a graduate student, he co-authored an article for the Journal of Advertising with AGSM Dean and Professor of Marketing Debra Ringold.

Class of 2005:

Kate A. Alsobrook (McClendon) (Classical Studies & Religious Studies '05)
researched traces of Shamanism in ancient Greek religion with the help of a Lilly Grant. She graduated in 2007 with an M.A. in Greek Philology from Florida State University (full scholarship) and now works in real estate in Philadelphia while she is applying to Ph.D. programs.

Class of 2003:

Travis Larsen (Classical Studies & Religious Studies '03)
has completed an M.A. at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, part of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.

Class of 2002:

Rachel R. Standley (Classical Studies '02)
was planning to teach high school Latin; she now lives in Cave Junction, OR.

Astrid van Giffen (Classical Studies, minor in Art History '02)
In 2007, Astrid graduated from the very prestigious professional training program for the conservation and restauration of glass and ceramics at the Instituut Collectie Nederland in Amsterdam. Her exam project investigated the advantages of using cyclododecane, a wax-like substance that at room temperature transforms into a gas, as a temporary consolidant for weathered glass during the bonding of sherds. She is currently a Conservation Fellow at Harvard Art Museum's Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies.

Class of 2001:

Matthew H. Schrumpf (Classical Studies & Religious Studies '01), Phi Beta Kappa
went to Japan and taught English with the Kawagoe Exchange and Teaching (KET) program. He is now studying International Law at New York University’s Law School.

Julie C. Sparks (Ford) (Classical Studies & English '01), Phi Beta Kappa
researched and recreated the illumination techniques in medieval manuscripts with the help of a Carsons Undergraduate Research Grant. Her impressive results are on display on the second floor of Eaton Hall. Since graduation, she has been working as an Administrative Assistant II at Willamette University’s Hatfield Library where she is busy digitizing, e.g., Willamette's fifteenth-century Book of Hours (view). She and her husband Jeremy Sparks (Computer Science, '01) now have a little son, born in 2008. Julie's long-term goal is to become an art conservator.

Class of 2000:

Andrew J. Herrmann (Classical Studies '00) is a system analyst for the Purchasing Department of the Salem-Keizer School District's District Office in Salem, OR, involved in database and process development and management.

Emmett C. Woolley (Classical Studies '00)
works for a medical supply company in Snohomish, WA.

Class of 1998:

Julie A. Briggs (Classical Studies & Mathematics '98)
started out working for the Atlanta, GA office of Mercer, a leading HR consulting company with 15,000 employees worldwide, but now lives in Portland.

Joseph "Joey" Lillywhite (Classical Studies '98), Phi Beta Kappa
attended the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classics at the University of Pennsylvania, then acquired an M.A. in Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati. He spent the 2007-08 academic year as a School Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, working on a study called Ceramic Record of Ancient Greece: The Decline of Red-Figure Technique. On January 12, 2009, he presented a paper at the Annual Convention of the Archaeological Institute of America in Philadelphia on the "Lead Glaze on a 5th-century BC Athenian Vessel."