Marion Sonnenfeld Award Scholarships, which recognize outstanding female students who exemplify leadership, hard work and a good sense of community, were recently presented to Olivia Kaltenbach and Meredith Smietana.
The Council for Women’s Concerns (CWC) honored the scholarship recipients at its annual awards ceremony held in the William’s Center Horizon Room.
Ms. Kaltenbach is a junior studying Communication Disorders and Sciences, with a minor in Sociology, and carrying a cumulative GPA of 3.91. She currently is the President of the Fredonia National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA), as well as working as a peer mentor for this association. Kaltenbach participated in the Service Learning Project held in Belize in January where she created and implemented English language arts and literacy activities for 31 second grade students. She has volunteered her time in assisting graduate students at the Henry C. Youngerman Center, tutoring children in the Summer Reading Program at Brocton Central School and supported learning activities for children with autism in Dunkirk School No. 5. Kaltenbach also works as a part-time assistant manager at Sherwin Williams in Dunkirk. She is member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, Golden Key International Honour Society and the Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society, along with reaching the Dean’s List for five semesters. Her future goal is to become a speech-language pathologist in an elementary school.
Ms. Smietana is a junior with a major in Music Education, with a concentration in Voice and a Theatre minor, and carries a cumulative GPA of 3.66. She currently is an active member of the Student Opera Theatre Association (SOTA), an executive board candidate of SOTA, a member of the Chamber Choir and a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfMe). Currently, she works as a choir member at the First Presbyterian Church of Westfield and participated in SOTA’s production of “Into the Woods” as Witch. Her vast volunteer experience ranges from spending time with the WNY Girls in Sports Program, Special Olympics and most currently the West Seneca Youth Theatre working with costumes, lights, sound and stage crew. Ms. Smietana is also the 2015 Lundquist International Fellowship recipient and spent two months in Arequipa, Peru, volunteering in a classroom. She has consistently made the Dean’s List at Fredonia.
Marion Sonnenfeld taught German as a member of the Fredonia faculty for 25 years. She was honored as a SUNY Distinguished Professor and became the first female Dean of Arts and Humanities. Dr. 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 which 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.
CWC will begin accepting scholarship applications from students for the 2016-2017 academic year in the spring 2016 semester. Female students with at least sophomore standing and with at least one academic year remaining before graduation may apply.
