Anne Wilcox earned a degree in secondary education because she always wanted to be a meteorologist.
The 2011 alumna loved everything about weather when she was young but a singular tutoring experience eventually led her to the Department of Curriculum and Instruction where she double majored in Broadfield Science and Earth and Space Science.
Wilcox had a science lab partner in seventh grade who couldn't read so after finishing their lab work, she taught him how to read for the remainder of their class time. From that experience, she advanced to mentoring students in a summer science class.
"So, ever since the seventh grade, I wanted to be a middle school science teacher," she said.
Wilcox volunteered at the Allied Drive Learning Center in an impoverished area of Madison since middle school, where she has built up a following of about 60 kids who participate in the reading groups, math tutoring sessions and science club that she developed and ran.
She also volunteered at a local food pantry for the past few years where she ended up serving as a Spanish language interpreter. She served in many leadership roles on campus including the Wisconsin Alumni Student Board, the Dinners On Wisconsin! program and with the UW Marching Band.
Wilcox started teaching freshman science classes at Memorial High School in Madison this fall.
"I am really excited… A lot of the kids I knew when they were in middle school are going to be in my high school now,” she said. “I am ready to be in the classroom and get my hands dirty… I want to be on the front lines instead of the background."
For her leadership, service and scholarship, Wilcox received a 2011 Harvey M. Meyerhoff Undergraduate Excellence Award from UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Association. At the awards ceremony in May, she gave the following pithy address:
“I grew up poor but rarely understood that I was growing up with less. Unlike many, I had two loving parents, a supportive extended family, and a vast network of friends and neighbors who gave me much more than any toy or new pair of shoes could have ever afforded me.
I may have understood what it was like to be poor but I had no idea what it was like to be generationally impoverished – struggling every day just to make it to the next with little knowledge of what to expect or who to ask for help. For the majority of my life I harbored bitterness and anger towards our society and the policy makers who I saw as allowing this cycle to continue, pushing people to the side, and doing their best to ignore the glaring discrepancy before them. My anger did nothing to amend this situation. Rather, I became another outsider who hypocritically did nothing but argue for change that I was doing nothing to impart myself.
For over 10 years, I have worked in schools and community centers in impoverished neighborhoods, primarily with children in their teens and pre-teens. Working with these students has gradually helped me to become a stronger individual – if these students with such hardships at home find a way to come into school each day, why aren’t I doing more with what I have been given? It is my charge as someone who has ‘made it’ to use the gifts I have been given and the opportunities and experiences I have been able to have, to help others to see that where you come from will never determine where you can go.
No situation changes over night and nothing can be fixed if no one can see it is broken. I may not be able to change the perception of a community overnight but I can help my group of students to find their voices and learn to advocate for themselves and their families through their own words. I can work to give these families the tools they need to do more than just get by, and to find pride in their own definition of success. I will be the teacher that does more than share my enthusiasm for science. I will share my enthusiasm for life and show my students that through hard work and finding what you love through the most crucial aspect of life, making and retaining relationships, we can all make a difference.
I am so grateful for everything I have experienced through this wonderful city and university. I have been nothing but a Badger from the beginning, having been born the weekend after Wisconsin football’s last home game during the Don Morton era, singing If You Want To Be a Badger in my first concert as a kindergartner, going to the geology museum with my dad to see the glow-in-the-dark rocks, attending College for Kids and later the School of Music’s summer clinic for three years, selling Coca Cola in Camp Randall for five years, hardly sleeping in high school to earn the grades I knew I’d need to get into the only school I ever wanted to attend.
My grandparents both worked for this university for nearly 40 years, but until my brother, four years ago, and my sister and I, next week, no one on my dad’s side of the family graduated from this great institution. This hasn’t just been my dream – it’s been all of ours – and if someone had told me even two years ago that I’d be standing here receiving this award today after having marched in the Rose Bowl and serving in the roles I have in this community, I probably would have asked what they were drinking.
I’ve been given tremendous opportunities and am living dreams I never thought would materialize. Now it is my turn to provide those opportunities to the next generation as an educator.”
all photos courtesy Anne Wilcox
Elizabeth "Betsy" Pike
Pike is an active student leader in addition to achieving high marks in academics. She has served on the UW Homecoming Committee for three years and is currently its president. She has also served as chapter president for the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and sits on the All-Greek Council. Pike has volunteered at the Madison Children's Museum, tutored at James Wright Middle School and worked as a swim director at Phantom Lake YMCA Camp.
Zina Knox
Knox's campus involvement includes the Wisconsin Black Student Union, the Chancellor's Student Advisory Board and the Multicultural Council. She's served as secretary and president of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., and secretary of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Knox participated in the Undergraduate Research Scholars and McNair Scholars programs. She received a PEOPLE Program Scholarship, a Heideman Minority Teacher Preparation Scholarship and a Wisconsin Idea Fellowship. Knox graduated in Spring 2011 with a bachelor of science in multicultural education with a certificate in women's studies. She now attends Boston College where she is pursuing a master's degree in urban education.
Mary Caron
Caron majors in secondary education mathematics and has held leadership roles in coordinating programs for incoming, first-year students. At the Center for First-Year Experience, she has facilitated small group discussions, coordinated welcome events, answered questions, and presented for the incoming freshman class. Caron volunteers in the community, primarily by tutoring in grade school classrooms.