WOMEN for BW
Student, Faculty & Staff Award Recipients

The Giving Circle has two segments for annual disbursement with 75% of funds allocated to Faculty & Staff Special Projects and 25% of funds allocated as Student Academic Enrichment grants.

Maura Devine (An Immersive Experience in Zambia, Africa)
Maura will use her funding to participate in the study abroad program in Zambia, Africa. This is an optional trip for graduate-level students to grow their experience by helping individuals in another country that have less access to resources. Students will have the ability to practice their skills as well as practice their education in promoting strategies and resources to residents. 

Emily Hill (Ireland: An Incredible Opportunity for Growth)
Emily will use her funding to participate in the the 2025 Ireland faculty-led study abroad program. Her goal with studying abroad is to further both her personal growth and her education.

Danielle McEwen (TEFL Certification and Research)
Danielle will use her funding to off-set the cost of official certification to teach English as a second language abroad. Baldwin Wallace does not offer a path to this accredidation, but it is still considered a valuable supplement to a political science education in the modern international job market. It would be especially helpful as she begins the application process for a Fulbright ETA position next spring. Finally, the experience will be of great service to her honors and departmental theses, in which she hopes to focus on educational policy surrounding the assistance and rights of ESL learners and non-citizen students.

Mia Sgambellone (Recording Equipment for Album on Women’s Mental Health)
Mia will use her funding to purchase recording equipment and supplies to outfit a recording studio to produce an album on women's mental health. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a mental illness that affects thousands of people; a large amount being women. Although BPD is common and versatile within humanity, it is often a misunderstood condition that results in misconceptions about the people it affects and how it works. Mia is a composer with BPD who focuses on storytelling and emotional responses. She is designing a concept album explaining the vicious cycles of a mind with BPD. This album will be a mixture of instrumentals, monologues, songs, and ambient sounds to create a piece that illustrates surviving with a mental illness in its rawest form. In doing so, she believes it will provide resources to women struggling with BPD and give answers and hope to those who are confused and alone.

Total Award Amount for Students: $5,600

2024 Faculty & Staff Special Project Awards

 
Claudine Grunenwald-Kirschner and Courtney Robinson
(Women’s Center Pop-Up)

The BW Women’s Center Pop-Up is an intentionally created space that is equal parts welcoming, informative, and inspiring. Claudine will use the funding provided in part by Women for BW and others to transform a room on the first floor of Strosacker Union into a gathering spaced filled with informational displays and resources to support women-identifying members of the community during the month of March. The space will be set up to additionally hold a variety of events, sponsored by multiple diverse campus partners.

Jami Lercher (Treble Choir Travel)
The Baldwin Wallace Treble Choir, an auditioned curricular ensemble, was selected through a rigorous audition process to perform at the Ohio Music Educator's Conference in February 2025. A choir's selection to perform at the conference is one of the highest honors bestowed upon an ensemble by the state of Ohio. Women for BW provided funding for round-trip coach accommodation and transportation for their 60 singers and collaborators.

Dr. Zarina Melik-Stepanova (2025 Hive Mind Conference for Teaching and Learning)
The 2025 Hive Mind Conference for Teaching and Learning will bring together Baldwin Wallace alumni, current students, local educators, and prospective high school recruits for a dynamic and collaborative experience. This one-day event, hosted on the Baldwin Wallace campus, will showcase the expertise of Conservatory of Performing Arts music alumni, who will lead a series of hands-on workshops designed to engage, inspire, and inform participants. Sessions will cover innovative teaching strategies, women’s musical repertoire, equity and access in music education, leading women’s choirs, job interview preparation, and more. 

Brandi Seither and Loretta Ayers (Creating Inclusive Literature Spaces)
This grant project aims to establish a collection of diverse children’s texts for preservice teachers to access, ensuring future educators have resources to foster inclusive and culturally responsive classrooms. By offering a wide range of children’s literature that reflects varied cultures, languages, and life experiences, this initiative addresses the critical need for representation in educational materials. This grant will fund the Inclusive Literature Space which will include furniture for the space for students to work as they review the books and plan for use with lesson implementation, and for the books themselves. 

Lindsay Webster (Projection and Media Design Equipment and Lab: Providing Access to Emergent Technologies for Creative Experiential Learning)
This project would provide students with the opportunity to become more well-rounded theatre artists with hands-on experience in media & projection design for performance spaces. With funding from the Women for BW grant, she would obtain the equipment necessary for students to learn and experiment with projection technology and design. Along with fundamental knowledge with media, this project will also provide students with the resources to explore digital content creation, motion tracking, and generative media. 


Total Award Amount for Faculty & Staff: $16,500

Total award amount for 2023-2024: $22,100