SENIOR COHORT

honor

Anna Duong

Amanda Figueroa-Nieves

Eva Strelitz-Block

Cameron Waltz

Anna Duong

Plan II/History

The past few years have left me feeling a bit like Alice after falling down the rabbit hole––trying on different “sizes,” or in my case interests, until I found the right one. I’ve been an opera singer, a transcriptionist, a tour guide, and a marketing consultant. This year, I became a museum enthusiast, and I think this time, the title will stick.

In the fall, I had the opportunity to intern at The Blanton Museum of Art. As an Education Intern, I created a database of oral histories, statistics, memoirs, and interviews from immigrants around the globe. I also developed educational materials for students and wrote reports on topics such as protests in 20th century Chile, forced disappearances in Colombia, health inequalities in undocumented communities, and the memory of AIDS in the U.S. This internship completely altered my understanding of museums. I used to view museums as exclusive spaces. Now, I see museums as places for community healing, outreach, and transformation. My internship at The Blanton set the tone for the rest of my year, as I continued to work and research in museums.

In the spring, I moved to England for a history exchange program at University College London, where our very own Isabel Carey introduced me to her hometown. My courses at UCL were challenging and unique. I got to formulate my own research topics and even did a final project on the historiographical debates surrounding the establishment of Chinese gynecology. Outside of class, I worked as a Gallery Steward at Two Temple Place. This historic home, once belonging to William Waldorf Astor, now hosts annual exhibitions. I worked at the home during their Body, Vessel, Clay: Black Women, Ceramics, and Contemporary Art exhibit. It was here that I gained inspiration for a forty-seven-page research project titled “Examining Exhibition Spaces: How London Museums Interact with Race.” For the project, I spent thirteen weeks exploring, critiquing, and reflecting on my experiences at different London museums under the guidance of Dr. Suzanne Seriff, who is now my upcoming senior thesis advisor.

My interest in museums also took me outside of London. I went to the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Neues Museum in Berlin, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Trinity College in Dublin (to see the book of Kells), The Matisse Museum in Nice, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where I am based for the summer. Here, I am taking a class on Shakespeare and a course that surveys fiction written in Oxford. I am immensely grateful to the Dedman Program for providing me the opportunity to study abroad not just once, but twice!

Aside from academics, I’ve had the chance to explore even more interests in my personal life. As a self-proclaimed foodie, I’ve tried a number of new European dishes like bitterballen, paella, wiener schnitzel, and jaffa cakes. I went to candlelight concerts in Berlin and Oxford. I got lost on a bus in Germany but used my (brand new) ability to navigate public transportation systems to find my way home. I got engaged to the love of my life and partner of six years. I took an art law course through Sotheby’s Institute of Art. I joined Texas Bluebonnets, a spirit group at UT and have found an incredible community of friends. I’ve had the most exhilarating, curiosity-inspiring junior year filled with opportunities made possible by the Dedman Program.

As I move forward into my senior year, I’m looking forward to seeing how my interest in museum studies shapes my post-grad plans. I also can’t wait to see my cohort again after we’ve been on different continents for months! To the Dedman family and program––my gratitude is endless. Thank you.

Amanda Figueroa-Nieves

Plan II/Public Health

This past year has been a whirlwind! I spent fall semester making countless petri dishes in microbiology lab, taking advantage of Austin’s live music scene, and celebrating my friends’ many impressive achievements. I also took a Plan II tutorial course titled “Understanding Human Evolution,” which sparked my deep interest in the history of science.

In October, I joined Texas Orange Jackets and found a vibrant, supportive community who welcomed me into the organization. In the upcoming year, I’ll lead a new class of tappees through their first year in the organization.

Following my interest in history, I took a leap of faith, derailed my four-year plan, and applied to the Normandy Scholars Program, perhaps the best decision I’ve made yet. As part of the program, I took five courses on the Second World War in the spring semester and surprised myself with the sheer amount I read and wrote daily. I examined life in France during the German occupation, analyzed documents from Nazi Germany, learned about the trials of the Eastern front, and considered the ethical issues behind presenting emotionally-challenging content in museums.

On May 9th, when I boarded a flight to Paris with my classmates, the boundaries of my world broke open. The next six weeks were filled with unbelievable experiences. We spent a blissful week in Normandy before following the Allies’ path to Berlin. I found the bounds of my empathy stretch wider than I ever thought possible as I walked on Omaha beach, stood in cemeteries, walked through WWI trenches, and visited memorials. After so many months spent reading about and grappling with the enormity of the events we studied, standing on the ground where everything happened forced me to confront history in a unique and profound way.

After the program ended, I continued traveling with other students, extending an already life-changing experience. We went to the Netherlands, Italy, and Portugal. Notably, we visited the National Liberation Museum in Rome, where we learned about the Nazi occupation of the city near the end of the war. There, we realized our accommodations were in Rome’s historical Jewish ghetto, filled with centuries of history and culture. No matter where we went, we couldn’t stay away from WWII material and found ourselves continuing to learn.

Throughout my time in Europe, and even now as I think about these memories, I find myself shocked that this is my life. In Rome, I ran into my favorite singer and her partner, who stars in my favorite TV show. In this show, his character reflects on his own study abroad experience. Throughout the trip I kept coming back to a quote from that book: “It’s like something he assumed was just a painted backdrop all his life has revealed itself to be real: foreign cities are real, and famous artworks, and underground railway systems, and remnants of the Berlin Wall. That’s money, the substance that makes the world real.”

No words can express the gratitude I have for the Dedman family’s support and generosity. No part of my life-changing year or summer would have been possible without this program—not just the funding, but also the community that encourages me to constantly push the boundaries of what I think I can do.

Eva Strelitz-Block

Plan II/Anthropology

It was wonderful to return to in-person learning in the Fall of 2021 and re-engage on campus. In addition to my Plan II, Anthropology, and pre-med coursework, I continued working as a research assistant to Dr. Kari White in the Population Research Center (PRC) on the Texas Policy and Evaluation Project (TXPEP). I supported projects evaluating the interrelationship between people’s reproductive health behaviors and outcomes and the health services and policies that shape their access to care. I also interned with the organization One Good Turn drafting clinical protocols on seizures, gastroenteritis, gastritis, and sexually transmitted infections for use by in-country healthcare providers. I served as one of the Plan II Honors Head Writing Coaches. Providing writing tutoring to Plan II students across all academic disciplines was really rewarding!

I am excited to return to Austin for my senior year after spending the second half of my junior year abroad. I arrived in Chile in February to study overseas through SIT’s Public Health, Traditional Medicine, and Community Empowerment program. I am incredibly grateful to the Dedman family for supporting this once-in-a-lifetime academic enrichment opportunity. Traveling throughout Chile, I lived in homestays and took four courses in Spanish, deepening my Spanish proficiency: I studied advanced Spanish, examined Chile’s public health practices, explored indigenous communities’ healing and spiritual beliefs, and learned how to conduct qualitative research regarding sensitive health issues with vulnerable populations. I designed my research project on access to reproductive health care, completed in-depth interviews with study participants in Spanish, and wrote a fifty-page thesis in Spanish. Chile is an amazing country with an incredible diversity of peoples, terrains, and social, cultural, and political perspectives. I know my experiences have helped me to grow as a student, researcher, and global citizen. A few additional highlights: I hiked 90 miles in Patagonia, learned the Mapuche word for bellybutton, and read over 30 books during my four months in Chile.

After a quick visit home to Austin, I am overseas again in July 2022, having been accepted to an NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program training in “Multidisciplinary Training in Quantitative Methods.” This project launched from Western Washington University in Bellingham Washington, and I am now in Kigali, Rwanda examining its family planning program and investigating its approach to engaging young people in the use of contraceptives and building positive client-provider relationships. Kigali is beautiful, and the Rwandan people are incredibly warm and welcoming, and I can tell this experience will affirm my career interest in global reproductive health and medicine.

In my senior year at UT, I plan to incorporate these learning and research experiences into my Plan II thesis, an ethnographic cross-cultural study of one specific dimension of birthing people’s reproductive lives in Chile and Texas: unwanted pregnancy. I hope to continue working as an RA for the PRC and a writing coach for Plan II while preparing to take the MCAT exam and apply to medical school. I look forward to reconnecting with my UT professors, mentors, and Dedman community. I truly never envisioned having access to such richly immersive instruction, and my gratitude to the Dedman family and Dedman faculty leadership and support staff is boundless.

Cameron Waltz

Liberal Arts Honors Program/International Relations & Global Studies/Asian Studies

Returning hot on his heels from nine months abroad, Cameron Waltz is ready to turn a new page on his academic life. In August 2022, he will return home after completing the capstone of his seven-year study of Mandarin Chinese after an intensive course as a Boren Scholar at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. During his senior year, Cameron plans to use the lessons in leadership and scholarship he’s gained from the Dedman Scholars program to help build academic platforms for others to share their ideas.

In June 2022, Cameron took over as editor-in-chief of the Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal. Founded in 2020, IUCJ is a student-run, bilingual, international journal that publishes an annual volume of academic research relating to the U.S.-China Relationship. Having previously served as an associate editor, Cameron hopes to build on the foundation that the journal’s founders left behind to expand the scope and reach of the journal. Cameron and his co-editor-in-chief are expanding IUCJ’s team to regularly publish short-form content and analysis year-round, in addition to the journal’s annual volume. To Cameron, the most crucial part of his job is to give a platform to young scholars who are left out of the academic discourse and to show the world that rising scholars have ideas worth hearing.

Beyond that, Cameron will begin this fall as a Clements Center Undergraduate Fellow, a UT Austin Junior Fellow, and will be extending his tenure as a Junior Fellow at the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. Cameron will also begin writing his undergraduate honors thesis in Asian Studies.

During his final chapter of study at UT, Cameron hopes to expand his horizons through his thesis research, engaging in academic discourse on and off-campus, and beginning to learn Korean. Cameron is also an avid rock climber, diver, and backpacker.