Indiana University

News Release

Thursday, May 1, 2003

Last modified: Thursday, May 1, 2003

IU student receives Beinecke Scholarship

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Jessica M. Sisk, a senior at Indiana University Bloomington, is one of 22 college students nationwide who have been selected to receive the Beinecke Scholarship by the Sperry Fund of Bethlehem, Pa.

Sisk is the third IU student to receive the scholarship, which awards $32,000 for graduate study in the arts, humanities or social sciences at any accredited university.

An interesting twist for Sisk is that her twin sister, Amanda, an accomplished IU senior with a double major in printmaking and art history, was the other finalist during the university's nomination process for the scholarship.

"From what I understand, the decision was rather difficult," Jessica said. "She has been splendid about it all."

Both are the daughters of Timothy S. and Allison R. Sisk of Crawfordsville, Ind., and now are residents of Bloomington. They are students in IUB's College of Arts and Sciences.

The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the directors of The Sperry and Hutchinson Co. to honor Edwin, Frederick and Walter Beinecke. The board created an endowment to provide substantial scholarships for the graduate education of young men and women of exceptional promise.

The program seeks to encourage and enable highly motivated students to pursue opportunities available to them and to be courageous in the selection of a course of graduate study. Since 1975, the program has selected more than 315 students from 94 different schools for support during graduate study.

Jessica Sisk currently has an overall grade-point average of 3.88 (on a 4-point scale) and is working toward a bachelor's degree with a double major in Latin and classical civilization and a certificate in medieval studies. She will remain at IU until December to complete an honors thesis.

She also was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa honorary society this year. Her previous academic awards include the Pratt Traveling Fellowship; the 2003 Mary Campbell Book Prize, the 2002 Gertrude Johnson Scholarship for Latin and the 2002 Jenny and David Curry Scholarship (awarded by the IU Department of Classical Studies); the 2002 Janet Frazee Hayes Scholarship; a 2002 IU Foundation Scholarship and the 2001 Palmer-Brandon Prize for the Humanities.

She also received the 2002 O'Meara Merit Award and the 2001 Josephine K. Piercy Award for Creative Writing, both given by the Bloomington Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters for collections of poetry.

She is a member of the Women's Classical Caucus, Golden Key Honor Society, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

In her spare time, she volunteers for Middle Way House in Bloomington and the State Science Olympiad Competition.


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