Monica Holloway '09
Cornell Annual Fund StoriesMonica Holloway '09What has Monica Holloway done since she arrived at Cornell three years ago? She joined the 2009 Class Council during her freshman year, worked for the Annual Fund and the Cornell Housing and Dining Office. She volunteered at Ithaca's Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, helping children with homework and art activities. Last summer, through the Cornell Urban Scholars Program, she worked with the Community League of the Heights (in Manhattan's northern Washington Heights neighborhood), hiring and supervising teen workers to keep Play Street activities safe for children, organizing workshops for her teen employees and recruiting expert speakers on sexual health, financial planning, and college preparedness, and taking charge of planning and raising funds for a health and awareness fair for well over 500 community members. For two years, she's also planned an annual retreat for Cornell's Women of Substance. Monica Holloway '09 Somehow, Monica also makes the time to study... a lot! A Policy Analysis and Management major in the College of Human Ecology, Monica is pursuing not one, but three concentrations: Health Policy, Law and Society, and Inequality. "There's a lot of overlap," she explains, "so there's not too much extra coursework." She's also been engaged in several research projects, one with Professor Josephine Allen studying how teens communicate and where they get their information about sexual health and AIDS. More recently, she's been working with Thomas Fuller Rowell, a graduate student in the Resilience and Lifespan Development Laboratory, studying how African American students at Cornell adjust to the university environment where they are a minority of the total population. Now, however, Monica is spending her spring semester in Washington, D.C. through the Cornell in Washington Program. She is taking classes in Public Policy and 19th Century Art and Culture while she also undertakes an externship at the Kaiser Family Foundation, working on the Foundation's Medicare Policy Project. �� Where will all this lead? "I'm still deciding," says Monica. "I'm interested in healthcare policy, but I'm also interested in healthcare administration, as well as consulting and marketing in the healthcare arena." She's currently researching MPA and MHA programs, or - true to her do-it-all nature! - looking for dual degree opportunities. Whatever comes next, Monica is grateful that Cornell has provided her with a real abundance of excellent opportunities. She notes faculty who have looked out for her, participation in research as early as her freshman year, meaningful hands-on experiences like the Urban Scholars and Cornell in Washington Program, and excellent courses-even including an ornithology class in the Dominican Republic. All of this has been possible for Monica because of Cornell's generous scholarship program, including the financial aid provided through the Cornell Annual Fund. "If I take a proposal to Financial Aid, it just seems to work out," she says. Fortunately, Monica's can-do attitude is matched by Cornell's can-do alumni, whose gifts are helping her to pursue her dreams. Their payback: the mark that Monica will undoubtedly make on the world.Every dollar matters. Every person matters. Please make your gift to the Cornell Annual Fund this year and every year! Make a gift today! Back to Cornell Annual Fund Stories |
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