Danielle Mason
Salisbury, Massachusetts
Major: Fine Arts and English

The College's Student Commencement Speaker for 2008, Mason has taken full advantage of her Stonehill education. She has served as a teaching assistant, student ambassador, and chair of the student-athlete advisory committee. She has studied in London and Paris. In addition to being a scholar, Mason was a star athlete on the College's varsity softball team and she credits the scholar-athlete combination with helping her develop her leadership and time-management skills. After graduation, Mason will head to London where she will work on her fine arts portfolio in preparation for beginning a Master's in Fine Arts. 

Khalid Abdi
Brockton, Massachusetts
Major: Health Care Administration

A refugee from Somalia who lost both parents, Abdi has demonstrated endurance and determination in creating a new life in America. He has built an extended family at Stonehill, especially with his fellow runners on the cross country team. He has also served as President of Diversity on Campus. As a Health Care Administration intern, he conducted outreach work with the HIV/AIDS community in Brockton. Fluent in Arabic and Somali as well as English, he is currently interviewing for health care positions with hospitals and medical groups in Boston's Longwood area. 

Amber Churchill
Auburn, Maine
Major:  Biology

President of the Students for Environmental Action, Churchill served as a student representative on our new Science Center Committee and the Environmental Stewardship Committee. Building on her SURE research into mushroom life cycles, she took a Stonehill Directed Study, winning acceptance into the Harvard Forest Summer Research Program in Ecology. Recipient of the Martin Institute’s Outstanding Senior Award, she will present her thesis work at the upcoming national meeting of the Botanical Society of America. This summer, she will join the Alaskan Peatland Experiment at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where, next year, she will begin graduate work.

Michael Ryan
Carver, Massachusetts
Major:  English

As he prepares for a graduate program in English at Boston University, Ryan says that the faculty in the English Department "demanded of me rigor, clarity, and diligence; they helped me with patience, support, and personal attention. At Stonehill I learned the disciplines of critical reading, critical thinking, and critical writing." The recipient of a SURE grant, Ryan explored the poetry of Walt Whitman and Sherman Alexie and went on to co-present his research on Alexie at the American Cultural Association Conference in Boston. Ryan also served as a teaching assistant. At, BU, he will study 20th century American literature.

Vanusa Gomes
Boston, Massachusetts
Major:  Criminology

Born in Cape Verde, Gomes is one of ten children and only the second to attend college. Gomes says she has been transformed by her Stonehill education, which "has opened my eyes and made me want to reach higher." Growing up in an urban area amidst challenges of unemployment and crime, Gomes decided to make a difference by majoring in criminology  with a goal of  ultimately working with juvenile offenders. A student spokesperson for the College's Attaining the Summit campaign, she is taking a year off school after graduation, but will apply to law school soon.  At present, she works for the Edvisors Network in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Justin Shepard
Abington, Massachusetts
Major:  Accounting

Named to the Dean's List every semester during his academic career at Stonehill, Shepard held a full-tuition scholarship in his senior year from the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund. Shepard studied in Australia and interned in Ireland. He also secured a prestigious full-time summer internship with Grant Thornton in Boston.  Back on campus, he was active in the Student Alumni Association, served as a teacher's assistant in Financial Accounting, and as President of the Accounting Association. After graduation, he will return to Grant Thornton to work full-time and he will pursue a Master's in Business Administration at Babson College.

Lindsay Bogner
Rockville Center, New York
Major:  International Studies & English

Through Stonehill, Bogner studied Shakespeare at Oxford University and made two trips to Brussels to learn about the European Union. On one of those occasions she served as a teaching assistant. A recipient of a SURE award, she conducted primary research on Irish educational policy and co-presented a paper on the topic at a regional meeting of the American Committee for Irish Studies. Accepted into English graduate programs at Georgetown University, the University of Virginia and New York University, she will attend NYU where she will study post-colonial literature.

Vinson Leung
Hong Kong
Major:  Biology

Upon taking a Fine Arts elective, Leung discovered a passion for photography. Since then, whatever his subject, portraiture or nature, he has developed a solid vision that has been described as "elegant and poetic." Leung's work so impressed the curator of the Cushing-Martin Gallery, he was invited as one of a handful of Fine Arts Seniors to exhibit this summer in a three person show. Despite the considerable demands of his Biology major, Leung spent copious time in the photo lab after hours to pursue his art. At present, he is applying for oncology research positions in the Boston area, but he harbors a wish to use his creative photography skills in his scientific career in the future.

Hillary Weimont
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Major:  Political Science

Recipient of the Martin Institute's Outstanding Senior Award, Weimont created her own study program focused on Africa. She spent a semester at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, where she also tutored seventh grade township students. Active in creating global awareness on campus, she helped to establish a special interest housing group dedicated to that issue. After graduation, she will attend Boston University where she will begin a doctoral program in political science with a specialty in African Studies. At BU, she is the recipient of a Foreign Language Area Studies scholarship, which will fully fund her doctoral studies.