Class Acts

Harsh Moolani initially shrugged off a friend’s advice to quit trying to do it all. Then he considered the source: a remarkable woman with a successful career, good friends — and only a few months to live. Moolani is set to graduate in December with a degree in neuroscience in Arts & Sciences. He will remain in St. Louis and expand Create Circles, the nonprofit he founded to connect older and younger adults.

Social workers have long served traumatized students, sick patients, struggling veterans and troubled families. But can they help the American mayor? Absolutely, said Diamond Munerlyn, who is poised to earn a master’s degree in social work from the Brown School. The recognition ceremony is Saturday, Dec. 14. 

Terri Williams is taking her master’s degree in American culture studies from University College in Arts & Sciences, along with a passion for teaching and inspiring young people, right back into neighboring University City.

An internship gave Cameron Hill, a senior in Arts & Sciences, the opportunity to make real connections with people at a St. Louis jail and informed her effort to propose changes to the bail system. After graduation, and before applying to medical schools, she will embark on a traveling research fellowship with the American Voices Project.

Just shy of 36 and a father of four, Weston McCarron isn’t your typical medical student. The Idaho native’s low-income rural roots and family trauma helped shape him and put him on the path to emergency medicine.

Once undocumented, Brown’s Robert Sagastume is advocating for policies and laws that will help immigrants access higher education. Expanded access is a win-win for us all, Sagastume says. “Latinx people are very community oriented and often pursue careers in nursing and teaching — positions that are going unfilled in our state. Why wouldn’t you want to leverage all of that potential to benefit our state?”

James Schisler grew up 100 miles west of St. Louis in St. James, Mo., population 4,216. When only one-fifth of his high school class returned to college their sophomore year, Schisler was determined to find out why. He believes cohort programs, like the ones he belonged to, can help rural students access the support and resources they need.

Entering college, Haley Allen knew she wanted to join ROTC so she could be an officer in the U.S. Army. But an ROTC trip Tanzania sparked a passion for Swahili and East African culture and history. She graduates this month with a degree in international studies and hopes to serve in Africa after completing helicopter training at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Cities are both a leading cause and victim of global climate change, but they also hold great promise. In the first installment of Class Acts, a series celebrating the Class of 2019, seniors Marissa Lerner and Alexis Vidaurreta share their optimism and respective visions for cities that protect people and resources.

How five Langsdorf Scholars in the School of Engineering & Applied Science kept searching for an answer to an urgent global problem: clean water for children. Their project, WOOTA, draws moisture from the air and re-condenses it into drinking water. The prototype was recognized as the winner of the 2016 Discovery Competition.