Read more of the 2011 Commencement and Reunion Issue.
The College will honor two members of the Class of 2011 Alexandra Heywood '11 and Nicole Yunger Halpern '11 as valedictorians at this year's Commencement ceremony for maintaining perfect 4.0 grade point averages at Dartmouth. Franziska Hertel '11, Robert Parisot '11 and Nancy Zheng '11 have been named as this year's salutatorians.
Heywood, a Russian language and literature major from Potomac, Md., has been involved in the department as a member of the Russian Club and as a drill instructor. She also participated in the Russian Language Study Abroad Plus program in St. Petersburg during her sophomore Summer and completed an independent study focused on current events in Russia.
Through a Tucker Fellowship her junior Fall, she taught English in orphanages and village schools in Komarivka, Ukraine. During other off-terms, Heywood worked as an archivist at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in her hometown of Potomac.
Heywood also sang in the Handel Society, Dartmouth's oldest choral ensemble and played an active role in two Tucker Foundation religious groups, Christian Impact and the Edgerton House Episcopal Campus Ministry, where she served as the campus ministry coordinator. In addition, Heywood has contributed to the Dartmouth Apologia, the College's Christian journal.
Looking back on her experiences at Dartmouth, Heywood cited swimming in the Connecticut River and spending time with her friends at Mink Brook as some of her fondest memories. Her experiences bonding with her professors and classmates have also been highlights of her four years at Dartmouth, she said.
Heywood advised other students not to "commit to too many things" and to make an effort to become acquainted with professors during their time at Dartmouth.
Following graduation, Heywood will return to Ukraine for a year on an Olga Gruss Lewin Post-Graduate Fellowship, which supports recent graduates pursuing humanitarian or service-oriented projects. In Ukraine, she will continue the work she began during her junior Fall with orphans, helping them "transition to higher education or to employment," Heywood said.
After the completion of her fellowship, Heywood intends to pursue a graduate degree either in Eastern European studies or in social work, and then work for a non-governmental organization.
Yunger Halpern, a native of Tampa, Fla., is a modified physics major. She designed her course of study to provide "many different perspectives on physics" from disciplines including philosophy, history and mathematics, she said. She earned nine academic citations during her time at Dartmouth and received the German Consulate Book Award for Academic Excellence in two German courses.
Yunger Halpern also worked as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar under physics professor Marcelo Gleiser and helped him edit two of his books.
During her sophomore Spring, Yunger Halpern interned at the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, a Smithsonian Institution Library. She also worked on an Israeli archaeological dig last summer through Dartmouth's anthropology and Jewish studies departments, she said.
While at Dartmouth, Yunger Halpern joined Rocky VoxMasters, a public speaking club organized through the Rockefeller Center, during her freshman Fall. Through VoxMasters, Yunger Halpern has presented speeches on physics and math, and she has co-led the group since her freshman Spring. She also helped found two campus groups the Physics Society, of which she has served as the co-president since January, and the Hebrew Lunch Group.
Due to her passion for public speaking, Yunger Halpern gave a speech at the first annual TEDxDartmouth event in 2010 on the topic of "word people" and "number people" and how these two types of individuals are not limited to their own skill set.
Outside of her coursework, Yunger Halpern enjoys writing poetry about math and physics, according to a release by the Office of the Registrar. Several of her works have been published in journals including the Mathematical Association of America's College Mathematics Journal.
Like Heywood, Yunger Halpern cited the connections she made with her professors and the "unreasonably long time" she spent with them during office hours as some of her most memorable experiences at Dartmouth.
"Our faculty is so giving that they have sacrificed that much time to speak with students," she said.
Yunger Halpern received a Dartmouth General Fellowship to write about science and math, continuing the experience she gained working with Gleiser her junior year, and she will pursue a graduate degree in physics beginning in the fall of 2012.
"I've been very grateful to be here, for many aspects of my Dartmouth experience," Yunger Halpern said.
Hertel, a government major and Russian minor from Zurndorf, Austria, has been involved in the international student community during her time at the College through the International Students Association. In addition to English and German, she speaks Italian, Spanish and Russian and participated in the Language Study Abroad program in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Hertel worked as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar under professor Deborah Brooks on a project called "Gender in Politics" and also taught middle school students at Harlem Academy during an off-term.
This fall, Hertel will attend Columbia Law School to study international business law. She is the recipient of the Fred C. Scribner, Jr. '30 and James H. Hamlen Law Scholarships for Dartmouth graduates.
Parisot, an economics major from Watertown, Conn., has received nine academic citations during his tenure at Dartmouth and has been awarded both the Andrew Warden Edson Memorial Prize in governmental studies and the Economics Commendation Award.
Following his interest in government, Parisot interned at the office of Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., during Winter term of his junior year.
Parisot will attend Harvard Law School in fall of 2011.
Zheng, a computer science major from Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, has participated in several research projects through the computer science department. She completed a thesis entitled "Abortable Reader-Priority Reader-Writer Algorithm" under computer science professor Prasad Javanti.
Zheng has been active in the scientific community at Dartmouth as the recipient of the Francis L. Town Scientific Prize and as a member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society and the Women in Science Project.
Zheng is working as a software engineer for Google this fall.
Hertel, Heywood, Parisot, Yunger Halpern and Zheng are all Rufus Choate Scholars an honor reserved for students with grade point averages in the top five percent of their class and all received the Phi Beta Kappa Sophomore Prize for students with the highest grade point average after five terms at Dartmouth.
