People

For most of her time as a mathematics undergraduate at Idaho State University, Jenny Hawkins was a shy student with an aversion to talking to her professors as strong as her determination to earn straight A's in their classes. Finally, in her junior year, a professor’s effort to ease Hawkins’…

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science professor Harold Connamacher wins Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Harold Connamacher has been called a “master teacher” by one colleague, a professor with “lifelong impact” by another, and simply “the most approachable professor I…

The business world’s loss has been a significant gain for students at Case Western Reserve University and the School of Medicine. Monica Gerrek, assistant professor of bioethics, had taken a philosophy course as an undergraduate but opted for the ostensibly safer choice of pursuing a business…

A Case Western Reserve undergraduate taking a May term class in Israel died Wednesday after being pulled from a natural spring in one of the country’s national parks. Lifeguards on site immediately contacted emergency services and performed CPR, but were unable to revive Xinling Yuan. He was 20…

When Brian Gran began his career in academia nearly 20 years ago, “collaboration” wasn’t as common a term or practice as it is today. But his areas of expertise—law and society, human rights and health policy—couldn’t fit into a single discipline if they were to be taught effectively, Gran…

Having never led a classroom before, Maggie Vinter moved to Japan in her early 20s to become a teacher of English as a second language to middle schoolers. “Seeing students go from not knowing to knowing—experiencing ideas as brand new—I found a love for teaching,” said Vinter, assistant…

When Lin Mei decided to go into medicine, he was following in his parents’ footsteps. Both had careers in the field: his mother in cardiology and his father in public health. But after medical school in China and a one-year internship that exposed him to various specialties in medicine, he felt…

During his four years at Case Western Reserve University, senior Raul Arturo Hernandez-Gonzalez has been highly involved, leaving his mark in a variety of ways as a student leader. A major part of his undergraduate experience has been the Math Club, which he led as president for two years, working…

When Debby Jacobson had the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands as a faculty leader for a study abroad course in 2005, she urged her oldest son, Bernie—then a first-year student at Case Western Reserve University—to participate. She wasn’t sure when an opportunity like that would come up…

Zechariah “Zack” Jenkins distinctly remembers the moment he knew he wanted to pursue a new career. Sitting in a bunker with mortars coming at it while deployed in the Middle East, he realized it just wasn’t what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Though he had just signed on for more time…