Seniors Amanda Wolk and Dan Proud are two students who have proven that hard work can lead to a successful college career. They are among the top students at Virginia Wesleyan College because of their work ethic and dedication to learning.
Wolk is majoring in theatre and English and Proud is majoring in biology and mathematics. Both are Honors and Scholars students and are involved in campus life and activities, as well as privately-led research endeavors.
Amanda Wolk
Hometown: Acme, Pa.
Major: Theatre and English
Future Plans: "I'd like to teach high school English. I'm looking at positions in the area but always have the option of working back home."
Campus Involvement: Wolk was president of the Relay for Life Club her sophomore and junior years and vice president her senior year; treasurer for the English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, her junior and senior years; and president of Honors and Scholars her senior year. She has also acted in several plays since her freshman year, including Anything Goes, Freedom of the City, Much Ado Bout Nothing, Poof, The Children's Hour, and A Servant of Two Masters. She wrote and directed her very own one-act play during the fall called The Light Within, for which she held auditions and cast the play in addition to writing the script.
Research: Wolk spent the spring semester in 2006 completing three semester hours of independent research on grief theories in American society and the representations of grief in dramatic literature. She spent the fall semester completing three semester hours casting and directing her own play dealing with the death of her brother who died of cancer in 2004. The Light Within, a one-act play, tells of the relationship she and her brother shared, as well as her experience since his death.
Awards: In addition to her status as an Honors and Scholars student, Wolk has remained on the Dean's List throughout her college career. She also received the Galileo Star for hosting the first-ever Relay for Life event on campus.
Influential Moment: "I've always wanted to be a teacher. My father's a teacher and I went to school with him a lot as a child. And teaching is a good way to combine my interests in theatre and English."
Dan Proud
Hometown: Mt. Pleasant, Pa.
Major: Biology and Mathematics
Future Plans: "Grad school. I'm looking at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette or Florida International. I'm planning to go for biology - specifically, tropical biology." Campus Involvement: Proud has served as president of the biology honors society, Beta Beta Beta, this year; treasurer of the Science Club his junior year; and treasurer of the Relay for Life Club his sophomore and junior years. He also helped Dr. Dan Margolies with Wesleyan Beekeepers Association, but was never an official member.
Research: He has researched harvestmen since his sophomore year, looking at the interaction between harvestmen and the bee hives as well as how the bees used their hives for protection and as a food source. Awards: Proud has received many awards, in addition to being accepted as an Honors and Scholars student in 2003. In 2005, he was inducted into the national honor society, Beta Beta Beta, and was awarded a Virginia Academy of Sciences Undergraduate Research Grant, as well as an Undergraduate Research Grant from the Virginia Academy of Sciences at the Fall Undergraduate Research Competition in Richmond, Va. In 2006, Proud received honorable mention recognition for best student paper in the Natural History Section at the Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Sciences hosted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, as well as the Virginia Federation of Independent Colleges Summer Research Grant.
Other Achievements: Proud contributed three papers that have been accepted for publication and are currently in press in the Herpetological Review and Journal of Arachnology and his fourth paper has been submitted for review by Caribbean Journal of Science. In 2006, he co-discovered three new species of harvestmen from Trinidad and Tobago and is now in the process of confirming the genera and preparing to write species descriptions with Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Vic Townsend. Proud also presented some of the preliminary results from his research at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. He will present his final results in April at the Association of Southeastern Biologists 68th Annual meeting in Columbia, S.C.
Influential Moment: "I came here only as a math major. Dr. Margolies was my freshman seminar adviser and when I told him I enjoyed biology, he recommended that I get into the field of biology then. My first week, I dropped classes, switched them around and started the biology curriculum. It's definitely been a great field for me to be in. I like the research and the professors I get to work with."