English majors win President's Leadership Awards

Two undergrads awarded University-wide honors for exceptional initiative
Maroon background with gold text of President's Student Leadership & Service Awards and photos of recipients

The Department of English is pleased and proud that two of our stellar English majors received University-wide recognition: Miki Schumacher (above right) and Caro Silvola both won 2020 President's Student Leadership and Service Awards. The award recognizes students for their exceptional leadership and service to the University of Minnesota and the surrounding community.

 

On campus this year, Schumacher served as a CLA Student Senator/Health and Wellness Committee Member with the Minnesota Student Association, working on mental/sexual health; Vice President of the slam-poetry group SPEAK Poetry, coordinating and publicizing monthly poetry slams; and volunteer team member for Art Professor David Feinberg's Voice to Vision project, collaborating with genocide survivors to transform their stories into visual art. For the latter, Schumacher worked with Vietnamese, Latin-American, Ethiopian, and Iranian storyteller survivors. Off campus, Schumacher taught advanced ESL at Minneapolis' English Learning Center and volunteered with the Women's Prison Book Project. A writing consultant with the Center for Writing, Schumacher is also Marketing Director and Editor for the U's The Tower literary arts magazine. As English Senior Lecturer Eric Daigre says, “Miki’s endless cultural curiosity, compassion, and human rights orientation heighten any organization’s impact."

Silvola's 2019 campus service benefited the Institute on the Environment (as IonE Undergraduate Leader), the U's chapter of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (Board Secretary), Fellowship of Undergraduate Students in English (Board Secretary), and Boynton Health Services and Engagement (Health Advocate). Off campus, Silvola volunteered with the Women’s Prison Book Project (as Mailing Co-Captain and trainer), MN350, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), and Minnesota's Environmental Quality Board (Emerging Environmental Leader). A community advisor for Housing and Residential Life this past year, Silvola is also majoring in Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering and minoring in CFANS Forest Ecosystem Management and Conservation. Notes English Lecturer Melissa Licht, "Caro uniquely combines emotional availability, lively wisdom, and analytical perceptiveness."

Congratulations to both!

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