The Marion Sonnenfeld Award Scholarship, which recognizes outstanding female students who exemplify leadership, hard work and a good sense of community, was recently presented to undergraduates Erin Pratt and Michaela Tadros.
The campus Council for Women’s Concerns (CWC) presented the 2018-2019 scholarships at its annual ceremony in the Williams Center Horizon Room.
Ms. Pratt is a junior in pursuit of a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics, and plans to double major in Computer Sciences. Pratt hopes to have a career in risk management as an actuary. She was selected to participate in Fredonia’s Honors program and has a perfect 4.0 GPA, balancing her academics with her role playing defense for Fredonia’s women’s soccer team. Pratt is also a member of the Student Athletics Club and is vice president of the X-Squad Water Ski Show, a not-for-profit water ski team which performs water ski shows around New York State. Her volunteer activities include raising money for the Ronald McDonald House and the Salvation Army. Pratt’s philosophy can best be understood from a line she wrote in her scholarship essay: “While we should all be motivated to achieve great things and accomplish much in our lives, we should never forget to help make things better for others, for that is our greatest accomplishment.”
Ms. Tadros is a senior majoring in Communication Disorder and Sciences with a minor in Leadership Studies and an overall GPA of 3.82. Tadros engages in many extracurricular activities, including serving as the vice president of the National Student Speech and Language Hearing Association on campus. She previously held positions as the treasurer of the Fredonia Ukulele Club and serving as International/Public Relations chair of Fredonia’s Operation Smile, and completed an internship at the Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center in the spring. Tadros has an interest in international health issues, having done study abroad experiences in Tanzania and Togo. While in Togo, she did a speech therapy internship working with children with special needs. Tadros plans to become a speech language pathologist with a multicultural emphasis. Her dream is to move to a country where there is limited access to speech pathology services, so that she might make a difference in the lives of people in need.
Dr. Sonnenfeld taught German as a member of the Fredonia faculty for 25 years. She was honored as a SUNY Distinguished Professor and was the first female Dean of Arts and Humanities at Fredonia. Sonnenfeld carried the virtues of her parents of loving life, being a faithful and loyal friend, having an outstanding work ethic and taking pride in her work.
The Council for Women’s Concerns seeks to help ensure a productive educational and work environment for faculty and staff at Fredonia, particularly in areas related to women's concerns. It focuses on general issues of campus climate and programs as they affect faculty and staff, and on policies and procedures that affect women on campus. Functioning as an advisory group, the CWC acts as a liaison between Fredonia employees and campus administration on matters of university policy and procedure related to women’s concerns.
The CWC will begin accepting scholarship applications from students for the 2019-2020 academic year in the Spring 2019 semester. Female students with at least sophomore standing and at least one full academic year remaining before graduation may apply.
