Williams College Junior Chelsea Thomeer Awarded Beinecke Scholarship

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 12, 2016—Chelsea Thomeer, a junior at Williams College, has been awarded a Beinecke Scholarship in support of her graduate education. The scholarship grants $4,000 immediately prior to entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 during graduate school. She is one of 20 students in the U.S. to receive the award this year.

Thomeer, an English and political science major from Williamsville, N.Y., plans to pursue a Ph.D. in English literature. Next year, she will write a senior thesis exploring the ways that ideas of power and revolution are presented in early 20^th century literature.

“I’m very grateful to have been selected,” Thomeer said of the Beinecke Scholarship. “I’d love the chance to keep studying literature in graduate school, and this is a big help in potentially getting there.”

At Williams, Thomeer is the executive editor of The Williams Record student newspaper and a member of Kinetic, a student-run, action-oriented think tank. She studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland, during the fall semester of her junior year. As a first-year student in 2014, Thomeer won the college’s William Sloane Coffin Public Speaking Prize in the Faith and Spirituality category. She also spent a summer working as a research assistant for English professor Stephen Tifft, compiling sources on the topic of aesthetic outrage.

Established in 1971 by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company to honor Edwin, Frederick, and Walter Beinecke, the Beinecke scholarship program seeks to encourage highly motivated students to pursue opportunities available to them and to be courageous in the selection of a graduate course of study in the arts, humanities, or social sciences. Each year, approximately 100 colleges and universities are invited to nominate a student for a Beinecke Scholarship. Thomeer’s award follows a Beinecke given to Jeffrey Wang ’16 last year and one to Sam O’Donnell ’15 in 2014.

END

Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions on U.S. applicants are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

Online:
williams.edu
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram