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Director’s Message
Thank you for supporting our students!
The thundering footsteps from the classrooms above the Charles Center have quieted, and campus stills around us for winter break. I’m left with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the amazing student experiences you helped us deliver in 2023.
Our robust summer undergraduate research program once again provided fellowship support to over 300 students, including 89 Honors Fellows.
It was a year for growth in our academic internships as we relaunched journalism internships and City Research Scholars and expanded the Woody Internship in Museum Studies.
And yet, in many ways, our work is just beginning.
Student demand for research and internship experiences that connect their academic and career journeys is rapidly increasing, as demonstrated by the record number of academic internship applications for summer ’24 and unprecedented interest in summer research grants.
With your support, we’re hoping to expand our journalism internships and to increase the number of research students we fund in fields as diverse as applied mathematics, sociology, and art history.
Won’t you consider supporting a summer 2024 student researcher or intern? Your donations make the full W&M experience accessible to even more students. Thank you!
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Charles Center Community News | | |
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WMSURE expands, creates thriving scholarly community
William & Mary Scholars Research Experience (WMSURE) enters its 15th year with more W&M Scholars Award recipients than ever.
Former W&M Student Assembly President and newly hired program coordinator Anthony “AJ” Joseph ’21 pays it forward, helping to grow the program that gave him so much during his time at W&M.
Read more
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Surging interest triples Sharpe Community Scholars program
A passion for community-centered research among incoming William & Mary students helped triple this year’s enrollment in the Sharpe Community Scholars program, an innovative undergraduate living-learning community centered on engagement, social justice, and collaborative research.
Housed within the Charles Center, the Sharpe program offers first-year students a year-long seminar.
Read more
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Practical magic: how research bewitched two Charles Center students
Caroline Leibowitz ’24 and Isabel Pereira-Lopez ’24 wish to understand the unexplainable, to travel down the roads that make the rest of us shudder with fright.
Leibowitz and Pereira-Lopez are not interested in stereotypical cauldrons, broomsticks, and pointed hats. They seek to tell the truth about the history of witchcraft, from witch trials in the Iberian Peninsula to real modern-day witches, or those who identify as Wiccan or Pagan.
Read more
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New self-designed internships inspire tomorrow's journalists
Dire predictions about the future of American journalism are common these days, but not so much at W&M, as student interest in the field flourishes amid a renaissance of Charles Center programs fostering the next generation of reporters.
“As our society evolves, so does the field of journalism," says Charles Center director Elizabeth Harbron. "We seek to support our students who aim to practice the craft, whether in traditional print media or new, experimental forms.”
Read more
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For City Research Scholars, community is the classroom
An innovative new internship program expands in its second year to include additional partnerships with the City of Williamsburg and as many as 8 local nonprofits.
Successful applicants to the program are matched with an internship host and receive $4,000 in funding to complete ten full-time weeks of research over the summer.
Read more
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Innovative new fund supports material culture study
Thanks to the generosity of adjunct professor of business law James Boswell ’86 and husband Chris Caracci, students with a passion for material culture have an unprecedented opportunity to connect with distinguished practitioners and other emerging scholars through two of the nation’s leading decorative arts institutions.
Read more
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Research incubator recipient Bailey elected president of the Geological Society of America
In a first for William & Mary, Christopher "Chuck" Bailey, professor and chair of the university’s geology department, was recently elected to the presidency of the Geological Society of America--an extremely rare honor for a professor in an undergraduate department.
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Coston '23 among two selected as Schwarzman Scholars
WMSURE alum Alton Coston '23 and Nitya Labh ’22 were recently selected as Schwarzman Scholars, one of the premier graduate fellowships in the world.
The scholarship provides one year of funding for graduate study in global affairs at Schwarzman College on the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Read More
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Connecting tomorrow's decision makers with today's issues
For 12 years, the Charles Center has collaborated with the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium Team to organize the Sharp Seminar, which provides students with the opportunity to apply personal interests and academic research to journalism.
Pulitzer Center-supported journalist Stephanie Hanes mentors seminar students in collaboration with visiting grantees.
Read more
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Sharpe fellow changing world through research
Sharpe Community Scholars fellow Kaleea Korunka ’25 is already changing the world.
While researching eviction in her first year at W&M, Korunka co-founded the Virginia Eviction Expungement Resource to support people who have been evicted and aid researchers like herself.
Today, her research on microplastic pollution in Lake Matoaka is positioning W&M as a leading university in microplastic data collection.
Learn more
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iGEM team wins gold,
ranks in top 10 worldwide
A team of students from William & Mary topped all other undergraduate teams from the United States in this year’s iGEM Grand Jamboree, the world’s premier synthetic biology competition that took place in Paris Nov. 2-5.
By developing a project that has real-world implications related to soil degradation, the W&M team earned a gold medal and landed in the top 10 out of 400 teams from around the globe.
Read more
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Charles Center Staff Spotlight | |
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Welcome, Anthony "AJ" Joseph!
Our new WMSURE program coordinator, AJ Joseph ’21, is an educator born and raised in Pemberton, New Jersey. While an undergraduate at William & Mary, he was a government and global studies double-major and a William & Mary Scholar. He has always passionately advocated for and given back to spaces that helped him thrive, which is why his ties to WMSURE are so meaningful.
AJ firmly believes that WMSURE’s guidance and resources significantly impacted his undergraduate experience, allowing him to engage in many different study away and applied learning experiences. For the past two years, AJ served in Teach for America as a history and band teacher in Camden City, New Jersey, serving the youth of Camden and expanding his understanding of the issues that affect communities like his.
Outside of his role with WMSURE, AJ serves as staff coordinator for Bushwackers Drum & Bugle Corps, a nonprofit community-based marching arts organization based in Princeton, New Jersey, where he helps create inspiring experiences for youths in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Meet the whole Charles Center team here!
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Your Support Makes a Difference! | |
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Giving to the Charles Center Fund ensures your gift will support the areas of greatest need and student impact. We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of innovative and experimental programming that fosters student and faculty creativity.
Thank you for your generosity.
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Looking forward...
Check out these Charles Center events in 2024!:
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