The Department of Geography is pleased to announce that Environmental Earth Science major Kamila Wisniewska has been awarded a Harcourt Fellowship, becoming one of 14 Hunter College students named Harcourt Fellows for the 2008/2009 academic year. The goal of the Alfred Harcourt Foundation Fellowship Program is to enable low-income students from underrepresented populations who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines to complete their undergraduate degrees and successfully move on to the next steps of their professional lives. Born in Poland, Ms. Wisniewska’s family did not have the resources to send her to college. But with their encouragement, she immigrated to the United States in her last year of high school. Here she learned English quickly, and worked as an office assistant in a construction company to afford college. After graduating from Hunter, Kamila plans to pursue a career in chemical oceanography, a scientific field that has been traditionally pursued by men, and she wants to make a place for herself and other underrepresented minorities in this field. Ms. Wisniewska will work with Professor Haydee Salmun as her mentor.

Congratulations Kamila!