Each year, the CFS Alumni Board
recognizes an Outstanding Senior from each department. Purdue
faculty and counselors select the students on the basis of scholarship,
leadership, professionalism, and community service. The following
seniors will graduate in May 2008.
See the list of past Outstanding Senior award recipients.
CFS Education
Name: Magan Waclawski
Major: CFS Education
Hometown: Elk Grove Village, Illinois
Magan Waclawski says she grew up loving children and looking up to teens, and that working with children has always come naturally to her. A certified child care teacher with extensive experience working with infants through school-age children, Waclawski plans a career teaching family and consumer sciences in middle or high school.
This spring, she student taught at a middle school and says of the experience, “As I worked with the middle school students, I just fell in love with this age group, and it reaffirmed that teaching is what I need to be doing with my life if I want to stay happy.”
During the fall, she completed a service-learning project with four other CFS education students that involved making and serving healthy snacks to children in the Stay and Play program at the Greater Lafayette YWCA. Once the project was completed though, she says the group felt the need to do more. Wanting to leave a lasting impact, Waclawski wrote a grant and received funding to create the “Healthy Snacks Cookbook: Fun Snacks and Fun Facts” for children.
“Learning how to write grants and to use them effectively really taught me a lot,” she says. “Because of that, I was able to take so much out of this ‘simple’ service learning project.”
Inside the classroom she demonstrated outstanding ability, achieving Semester Honors and Dean’s List every semester at Purdue. She also is the first recipient of the Mary Griffin Memorial Scholarship.
Child Development and Family Studies
Name: Alison Steele
Major: Youth, Adult, and Family Services
Hometown: Lafayette, Indiana
Throughout Alison Steele’s college career, service to others has been as important as what she learns in the classroom. Her goal is to work for a social service agency and ultimately pursue a master’s degree in social work, family and marriage therapy, or religious consulting.
“I recognize and appreciate when I am lent a hand, so I want to do my part in helping others with the skills I have been blessed with,” she says. “I enjoy seeing others smile and would do anything for someone if I knew that it would benefit them. My major helped develop the passion I have for service and provided the knowledge base to make a difference through serving others.”
Inspired by her brother, Ryan, who has Down syndrome, she worked the last two years as a care provider for children with disabilities at Community Ventures in Living. During the summer 2007, she interned as a case manager with Deborah’s Place, a nonprofit organization serving homeless women in Chicago.
“Getting to do hands on work with children who have a disability and working with their families to establish goals was an incredible experience,” she says. “At Deborah’s Place, it was tough watching women go through the daily struggles associated with homelessness, but I was encouraged by their persistence to not give up.”
On the Dean’s List every semester, Steele received several honors including the YWCA Women of Promise Award. She held leadership roles with Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Greek Intervarsity for Christ, and Purdue Women’s Club Soccer.
Consumer Sciences and Retailing
Name: Alexandra Gagnon
Major: Retail Management
Hometown: Fort Benton, Montana
Having spent most of her youth in Hong Kong, Alexandra Gagnon gained an early appreciation for diversity and cultural awareness so it’s not surprising that study abroad played a prominent role in her education.
In summer 2006, she completed a retail internship with Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and spent the following semester studying at Peking University. Gagnon, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Hong Kong, is fluent in both written and spoken Mandarin Chinese. Last summer, she interned with Liz Claiborne working with international markets.
Gagnon says she attended Peking University for an intensive language immersion, and it was there where she was pushed as a student to challenge her language skills, adapt to a different university system, and to be open to other cultures.
“Through this experience and the people I met while I was in Beijing, I started to challenge some of my preexisting thoughts and behaviors and matured as a person,” she says.
Closer to home, she served as a CFS Ambassador for three years and as a mentor to first-year students majoring in retail management. She held leadership positions in Mortar Board, Panhellenic Association, and the Diversity Leadership Group, and volunteered with College Mentors for Kids and the International Center.
“Service is essential to personal development — no matter how big or small, you have the ability to make an impact,” says Gagnon. “Service prompts you to develop compassion, understanding, and invokes a general motivation to challenge the process.”
After graduation, she will be employed as a retail consultant with Kurt Salmon Associates in Atlanta, Georgia, and hopes to eventually work oversees.
Foods and Nutrition
Name: Angela Fast
Major: Nutrition Science
Hometown: Anderson, Indiana
Angela Fast knew the CFS Honors program would help her gain the experience she would need to get into medical school. Fast, who traveled to Nicaragua on a medical missions trip in May, is currently deciding which medical school to attend in the fall.
“I am particularly attracted to this field because nutrition is a major environmental aspect over which individuals have an active control,” she says. “I believe prevention is the best medicine, and nutrition is a vital part of health and prevention of many diseases.”
As part of the CFS Honors program, she worked with a faculty mentor in Foods and Nutrition to complete a research project involving DNA cloning techniques on transgenic mice.
Her leadership roles include serving as a teaching assistant for biology and a tutor for chemistry. Recognized with Dean’s List and Semester Honors every semester at Purdue, she is a member of Kappa Omicron Nu and Alpha Lambda Delta/Phi Eta Sigma honor societies. A member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, she attended the Indiana Greek Leadership Conference and was active in Panhellenic Association.
Fast says one of the most important experiences of her undergraduate studies was spending six months in Europe studying at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England.
“I’ve traveled to other countries and seen first-hand how much easier life is here,” she says. “These kinds of experiences shaped my perspective to focus on the big picture rather than get caught up in the little details, and that’s why service is important to me.”
Fast has volunteered with the Special Olympics, Reading is Fundamental, Raising Awareness of International Medicine, tsunami relief, and several other philanthropies.
Hospitality and Tourism Management
Name: Bethany Sherrill
Major: Hospitality and Tourism Management
Hometown: Fort Wayne, Indiana
When Bethany Sherrill had the chance to head the decorations committee for a banquet during her junior year of high school, she didn’t realize the long-term impact of that decision.
“I absolutely loved it, and from that time on I participated in planning all of our major events,” says Sherrill, who plans a career in catering at an Indianapolis-area hotel. “When I found Purdue’s HTM program, I decided this was the career path to pursue.”
A hardworking student, she graduated in three years and was recognized on the Dean’s List or Semester Honors every semester. She is a member of Pi Gamma Theta chapter of the Eta Sigma Delta Hospitality Honor Society. While carrying an above average course load, she participated in the HTM Society’s Black Tie Dinner each of her three years, serving as hostess, server, and executive assistant.
“The Black Tie allows us as students to practice the skills we are learning and to meet industry professionals,” she says. “Each position I held gave me a unique perspective in putting on a high-class event. This experience will be very beneficial in my career.”
Last summer, she completed an internship in catering and convention services at the Westin Stonebriar Resort in Frisco, Texas. She also participated as a member of a team in the 2007 Sara Lee Innovation Award competition at Purdue.
Outside of school, she was a member of Purdue Bible Fellowship and helped organize FaithWorks, an annual community service week sponsored by campus ministries. Throughout college, she was active at Faith Baptist Church and served as the children’s church kindergarten teacher.
