Donor-funded experiences are helping undergraduates at Case Western Reserve’s College of Arts and Sciences go farther—literally and figuratively.
From researching ancient Ayurvedic medicine in India to co-directing children’s musicals in Prague, students have pursued immersive experiences that shape careers, spark passions and expand worldviews.
With donor support, undergraduates in the college have pursued internships, research and study-abroad experiences that might otherwise have been out of reach.
These programs have made a difference in the lives of many alumni. Read on to learn about some of their stories—including one about an alumna who reciprocated, creating a fund at the college.
Grace Ingham
As a psychology and theater major, Grace Ingham wanted to explore costume-shop management. The Feldman grant gave her the financial flexibility to accept an unpaid, customized summer internship at the Cleveland Play House. Working closely with the costume-shop manager, she styled wigs across historical periods, dyed fabrics and added surface texturing to materials.
“It felt like a ‘choose your own adventure’ opportunity,” she said. “I got to dive into the parts of theater that genuinely excited me and build something really personal to my interests.”
The grant was established by Matt (WRC ’75) and Ellen (WRC ’75) Feldman, longtime supporters of the college.
Ingham also gained a surprising new perspective when she had the chance to see the theater’s leaders strategize on how best to respond to post-pandemic calls for racial and social justice. “That experience cracked open a bigger world,” she said. “I realized I cared as much about the systems behind the scenes as I did about the stage itself.”
That summer helped her see how art, education and advocacy could intersect in new ways. “Theater gave me creativity; psychology gave me empathy,” said Ingham, a high school English teacher near Charlotte, North Carolina, and a master’s student in social work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Those are my teaching tools now—and they’re just as important as the curriculum.”
Muskan Sidhu
As a medical anthropology major, Muskan Sidhu (CWR ’23) traveled to New Delhi, India, with support from the college’s Plimpton Fellowship to conduct ethnographic research at the Aastha Ayurvedic Clinic. There, she studied why patients in a modern urban setting prefer Ayurveda—a traditional Indian system of medicine based on natural therapies and holistic principles—over Western medicine, which emphasizes clinical diagnostics and pharmaceutical treatments.
Her interviews with patients and practitioners formed the basis of her senior thesis and helped inspire her master’s thesis at the University of Cambridge, where she explored traditional Chinese medicine in the United States.
She also gained early experience working with research design and related protocols—skills she now uses as a CWRU School of Medicine student.
“I always knew I’d go to medical school,” said Sidhu, who is finishing her first year in the program. “But anthropology helped me see medicine as a cultural practice—not just a science.”
Her undergraduate fellowship was made possible by a gift from Jonathan F. Plimpton (ADL ’70), who established the fund to support anthropology majors conducting independent research abroad.
Sidhu hopes to become a physician who embraces collaboration between Western and traditional medicine systems, particularly in chronic care. “If doctors don’t understand what their patients are taking—herbs, supplements, acupuncture—they can’t give the best care,” she said. “We need more culturally aware physicians. This fellowship showed me how much healing can happen when doctors understand—not dismiss—patients’ beliefs.”
Emma Carson
As a rising fourth-year student, Emma Carson returned to the Lakewood Project—her high school’s pioneering rock orchestra—not as a performer, but as an aspiring educator.
The Lakewood, Ohio, program had inspired her to pursue a degree and career in music education in the first place, and the Cramer fellowship gave her the opportunity to give back in a new role.
“I did everything from helping students in rehearsals to managing logistics for concerts,” she said of her internship. “That kind of hands-on work prepared me for the realities of teaching in ways I didn’t expect.”
The fellowship was made possible by an anonymous donor in honor of historian Clarence Henley Cramer, PhD, who began teaching at Western Reserve University in 1949 and was later dean of Adelbert College for 15 years.
Now in her first year as full-time orchestra director at The Wellington School, an independent school in Upper Arlington near Columbus, Ohio, Carson draws on her Lakewood Project experience daily. Its emphasis on improvisation, student voice and risk-taking continues to shape her creative, student-centered teaching style. “It’s a really creative space,” she said. “And I try to bring those same elements into my interactions with students now.”
The fellowship also made the unpaid experience financially feasible. “It gave me the confidence and real-world experience to start my career strong,” she said.
Anna Cormier
Anna Cormier used her fellowship—known in the college as “The Rocks”—to fund two theater internships in the Czech Republic: one with the Prague Youth Theatre and the other with the Prague Shakespeare Co. She co-directed children’s musicals, taught acting classes and stage-managed productions, all while completing her senior capstone project.
“Prague’s theater scene is huge and international,” she said. “I worked with students from all over the world and staged Shakespearean productions. It was exhausting—and amazing.”
The fellowship was created through a gift from James E. Rocks, PhD (ADL ’61), in honor of his parents and to support immersive, independent projects in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Cormier also conducted an original research project comparing how socioeconomic factors in Prague and Cleveland affect young people’s access to theater education and participation in theatrical performances. That experience sparked a lasting interest in promoting educational equity.
After graduation, Cormier taught in Taiwan. She is now a third-grade teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her Prague experience helped develop a passion for cross-cultural education and creative, student-centered learning. “I wouldn’t have gone to Asia after graduation—or be the kind of teacher I am now—if not for how The Rocks shaped my path,” she said.
Alexander Brucker
Italy was always part of Alexander Brucker’s story—even as he grew up more than an ocean away, near Pittsburgh. His mother’s family is Italian, and he was surrounded by the rhythms of the language and the pull of a culture that felt like home.
At Case Western Reserve, he majored in biochemistry—and also took Italian language courses. “It gave me a chance to tap into a completely different part of myself,” he said. “It wasn’t just about the words—it was about where my family comes from.”
That connection grew stronger in 2018 when Brucker enrolled in “The Italian Experience,” a three-week undergraduate spring immersion course led by Denise Caterinacci, a senior instructor and the Italian language section head.
With support from the college’s Eirik Børve Fund for Foreign Language Instruction (read more about the fund below), he traveled with classmates to towns and cities across central Italy—and even spoke entirely in Italian with a vineyard owner about the land, grapes and seasonal cycles.
“We weren’t just tourists,” he said. “We were sharing meals. Listening. Watching how people interacted. That’s how you really learn a language—and a culture.”
Now a pharmacist outside Pittsburgh, Brucker still studies Italian and dreams of one day working abroad. “That trip turned my interest into something deeper and lasting,” he said.
Brucker also knows the experience wouldn’t have been possible without donor support. “Somebody I’ve never met gave me this opportunity,” he said. “It’s been life changing.”
Thalia Dorwick
In 1968, while pursuing graduate studies in romance languages at Case Western Reserve, Thalia Dorwick received a fellowship that allowed her to spend nearly a year living in Madrid. The experience was transformative.
“I could analyze poetry in Spanish,” she said. “But daily life abroad showed me what real fluency truly meant.” The difference between understanding language on the page and navigating it in kitchens, markets and conversations sparked a lasting belief in the power of immersive learning.
That belief shaped her life’s work, which focused on foreign-language instruction. She taught at Allegheny College and California State University, Sacramento, and later became vice president and editor-in-chief of humanities, social sciences and languages at McGraw-Hill Higher Education, where she influenced language education on a national scale. She developed and wrote textbooks that featured voices from around the world and supported instruction that emphasized fluency, cultural understanding and active use of foreign languages in everyday contexts.
Dorwick was on the CWRU Board of Trustees for many years and served as its vice chair and co-chair of the university’s last capital campaign. She is now a trustee emerita and a longtime member of the Kelvin Smith Library and College of Arts and Sciences Visiting Committees.
Grateful for a fellowship that expanded her worldview, Dorwick established the Eirik Børve Chair in Modern Languages and the Eirik Borve Fund for Foreign Language Instruction in the college’s Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. It was important, Dorwick said, to her to give back to the university that had given her so much.
Named for her publishing mentor and colleague, the endowments (initially funded at nearly $6 million, with additional donations since then) have multiple purposes: to support the work of a specialist in foreign language instruction, to encourage innovation in instruction in the modern languages department, and to provide support for immersive learning, including short- or long-term study abroad.
“I wanted to create opportunities for students who might not have imagined going abroad,” she said. “Every culture is its own bubble. Getting out of that bubble is one of the best educations a person can have.”