FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- 5/11/01 | Contact: Diana Smith, 719-389-6138  

Each of these students has combined academic success with extensive extracurricular involvement - they are some of the "best and brightest" of the Class of 2001.

Since 1985, Robin Barnes from Wetmore, Colo., has answered elementary students’ questions about blindness. A lifetime Girl Scout and winner of the highest achievement Gold Award in girl scouting, she has 10 years of volunteer work under her belt. She belongs to the Visually Impaired and Blind Skiers of the Colorado Springs area and last summer participated in the Mobility International, USA, conference in leadership and international employment for people with disabilities from around the world. Barnes is also an Asian Studies Student Council member, a private flute instructor and a member of the Colorado College Concert Band, a Woman’s Educational Society scholar, and part of the Delta Gamma sorority. She has applied to a program that would allow her to travel to Japan and teach English after graduation.

English major Anne Gasperini from Grand Junction, Colo., has received a Fulbright award to travel to Korea to teach English to middle and high school students. When she returns to the U.S., she plans to go to law school. While at CC, she played rugby, volunteered at the Red Cross homeless shelter, and served as a victim’s advocate for the District Attorney’s office. She was a Woman’s Educational Society (WES) scholar and a Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society inductee.

From Lima, Peru, Jorge Andres Cedron speaks French, Italian, and German, in addition to his native Spanish and English. Active in Theater Workshop, he directed and acted in many drama department productions and plays produced by the German and Italian departments. As a political science major, he wrote about “Success and Failure: Assessing United Nations Peace Operations” in his senior thesis. After CC, he will attend Columbia Law School and study international law. This summer, he is assisting the CC course, “The Art and Culture of Ancient Peru,” taught in Peru. He was recently induced into Phi Beta Kappa and is the co-chair of the campus Honor Council.

A Boettcher scholar at CC and a state semi-finalist for a Rhodes scholarship, William Wieder from Littleton, Colo., has received several community service awards, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and directed the campus chapter of the national Yellow Bike Program. He won a best presentation award at the 26th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference in Biology at Santa Clara University in April. He was recognized at an undergraduate research conference for his senior thesis. Next year, Wieder is heading to Costa Rica to serve as a teaching assistant for Council on International Educational Exchange’s tropical ecology program, which he participated in last year. He was also a Hughes Undergraduate Research Program grant winner last fall.

An international political economy major, Seth Bolzle from Tulsa, Okla., has been active with the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity all four years as the historian, treasurer, and delegate to the Interfraternity Council. He studied in Germany and served in student government on campus upon his return. He is a member of Phi Gamma Mu Honor Society in the Social Sciences, a member of the Blue Key Honor society and the President of the Order of Omega Greek Honor Society. He wants to attend law school at the University of Texas after working in Denver next year.

Other outstanding graduating seniors include resident advisor and mentor to first-year students, Molly Mayfield from Summit County, Colo. She is off to Harvard Divinity School after graduation, where she has a fellowship. A Boettcher Scholar and Rhodes state finalist, Mayfield also received the Anne Rice Memorial Award for juniors in the liberal arts. Graduating with distinction in economics, Whitney Wheelock from Denver, Colo., was voted Most Valuable Player in varsity soccer this year. He toured Germany with the team in 2000. He has a job at the Federal Reserve Bank in Denver next year as an analysis in the Management Career Path.

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