CLASS Acts

CLASS Acts

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, many students in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences met with a string of successes the preceding several months, making their marks across the country, and world.

Emily Henline of Austintown, a YSU senior, was named a scholar in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, considered to be one of the most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships in the world. Henline is double-majoring in English and Education (Integrated Language Arts, 7-12), with a minor in Linguistics and a TESOL Endorsement. She will use the Fulbright award to study for a master’s degree in Korean Studies at Yonsei University in South Korea beginning this fall. (Editor’s note: Henline, pictured with the mascot at Yonsei, could defer her studies until Spring 2021, depending on the status of the coronavirus pandemic.)

A team of YSU students won the national Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in Atlanta in February. The team of Samantha Fritz, Jacob Tomory, Moataz Abdelrasoul, Eva Lamberson and Michael Factor, bested squads from universities and colleges across the country, including Stanford, Yale, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy, Tufts, University of California Santa Barbara and the University of Central Florida.

Two teams from YSU's nationally-ranked Moot Court program - Fritz and Tomory (left), and Abdelrasoul and Factor (right) - won regional tournaments and qualified for the nationals for the 11th consecutive year. At nationals, the YSU teams ranked in the top 8 and the top 32, with Tomory the fifth best individual orator.

Also taking national honors was Noor Khalayleh, a senior Psychology major and honors student, who placed first at the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference in New Orleans. It was the fourth time in the past decade that a YSU student walked away with the top award.

In addition, several students (pictured below) earned honors at the Lake Erie International Model UN competition earlier this fall. Teams from 15 universities competed.

Meanwhile, two groups of CLASS students headed overseas for study trips. Ten went to Chengdu, Sichuan Province in China last year, pictured (left) with students from Sichuan Normal University with paintings they created using traditional Chinese calligraphy. Other students headed to the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany for a study trip that centered around the Holocaust and human rights in Central Europe, pictured (right) at the Remuh Synagogue in Krakow, Poland.