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| Honors Alumni Class Notes | Featured Honors Alum | |
The Honors Office has a diverse and well-accomplished group of alumni. Below are notes from a few of them, and we hope you enjoy hearing what your peers (and possibly old friends) have been up to!
Emily Mitchem
Graduate Student
Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
University of Florida/IFAS
pandaba@ufl.edu
I started UF in 2002 as a member of the Honors Program. I lived in the "new Hume" for the inaugural year and the year after (I even won a brick from the "old Hume"). In December 2005, I graduated UF summa cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Zoology. While at UF, I received my NAUI scuba instructor certification through the Academic Diving Program (UFADP). Since graduating, I worked at UF's Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (FAS) as a science diver for about 8 months before starting my master's coursework at FAS, under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Frazer. In March of 2006, I presented a poster with the results from my University Scholar's Project at the National Shellfisheries Conference in Monterey, California. In addition to my graduate work, I teach Open Water scuba diving at UF (PEN 1136) and help out in the pool and on checkout dives with the Advanced scuba class (PEN 2138). I'm doing my master's research on a coral that lives near the St. Martin's Keys, near Homosassa, Florida. I'm going to be looking at shading effects as a result of eutrophication on these small, golf ball-shaped corals.
Rachael T. Shenkman
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Office of the General Counsel
Washington, DC
Rachael Shenkman (UF '03) is an attorney in Office of the General Counsel in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She graduated from the University of Florida in May 2003, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Political Science and minors in Spanish and Art History. Rachael works on litigation matters in close cooperation with the Department of Justice to represent the VA Secretary in legal actions brought in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Rachael also assists in the formulation of policy and works with VA officials to prepare legislative initiatives for submission to the Office of Management and Budget and to Congress on behalf of the VA Secretary. Prior to this Rachael worked for several years in private practice at a law firm in Washington, DC. Rachael earned her law degree in May 2006 from the University of Michigan law school where she was active in the Domestic Violence Clinic and Pediatric Advocacy clinic. In addition to practicing law, Rachael enjoys writing and performing original music around Washington and watching Gator games with the D.C. Gator Club.
Tim Tinnesz
Middle/Upper School Social Studies
Upper School Student Government Advisor
Gaston Day School
704-864-7744 ext. 248
Teacher/Class Website: Click Here
Tim graduated from UF with a BA in Political Science in 2002. After graduation, he married his high school and college sweetheart—also a UF Honors student—Karen Glade (BA, English and BS, Mathematics, 2002). The two moved to Washington, D.C., where Tim used his James Madison Memorial Fellowship for his graduate studies at Georgetown University. During his graduate coursework, Tim began teaching at high schools in Silver Spring and Chevy Chase, Maryland. He earned his MA in American Government from Georgetown in 2004.
After Karen earned her MA in Mathematics from the University of Maryland in 2005, the two moved to Gastonia, NC, right outside of Charlotte. They both now teach middle and upper school at Gaston Day School, an independent, college preparatory school in Gastonia. Tim teaches American History, AP American History, and AP Government, and acts as the faculty sponsor for the Student Government. Tim and Karen spent summer of 2006 on an 8000-mile cross-country road trip to San Francisco and back. "On the way," they visited Mammoth Cave (KY), Mount Rushmore (SD), Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks (WY), Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks (CA), Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns…and the "UFO crash site" of Roswell, NM.
