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BU on Peace Corps annual list of volunteers

Boston University ranks 18th on the list of the top 25 large colleges and universities (more than 5,000 undergraduates) with alumni serving in the Peace Corps. Currently 41 alumni are volunteers or trainees. Last year, BU was ranked 20th.

"The strong showing illustrates that many students today are solidly dedicated to service and deeply value the unique experience the Peace Corps offers," says Peace Corps Acting Director Charles Baquet III.

Established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps has sent over 161,000 trained volunteers to 134 countries. This year, more than 7,300 volunteers and trainees -- the highest level in 26 years -- are working in 78 countries around the world to help fight hunger, bring clean water to communities, teach children, help start new small businesses, and stop the spread of AIDS.

BU collaborates with Symphogen on antibody-based therapeutics

Boston University and Symphogen A/S, a biotechnology company established to commercialize the propriety rights to a patented polyclonal technology developed at BU's School of Medicine, will be collaborating on the development of recombinant human polyclonal antibodies.

Jacqueline Sharon, a BUSM professor in the department of pathology who developed the Symphage™ technology, says, "We have demonstrated the feasibility of developing Symphobodies that target tumors and infectious diseases, and we look forward to starting the clinical development and testing of specific Symphobody drug candidates."

Kirsten Drejer, Symphogen's CEO, notes that while several important drugs based on monoclonal antibodies have been approved for therapeutic use in the past few years, "monoclonal antibodies have not fulfilled their original promise of being universally effective drugs because the monoclonal antibody only binds to a single antigen, and this is not the way the immune system works. The Symphage™ technology will allow production of recombinant human polyclonal antibodies (Symphobodies) that are target-specific and have a high affinity in cell culture at reasonable cost."

For more information, visit www.symphogen.com.

Merit scholarships available for children of BU employees

Boston University's Mail Services announces merit-based scholarships for BU employees' children who are high school seniors or prospective first-year college students. Scholarship awards of $1,500 will be made in early June by the Postal Customer Council of Greater Boston.

Last year, two out of four scholarships went to children of BU employees.

The application deadline is March 30. For more information and application forms, call 353-6680.

COM grads garner journalism awards

The College of Communication notes a number of graduates who have taken top prizes in major journalism awards for 2000 and 2001.

Rolling Stone magazine announced that Sarah Curtis (COM'00) won this year's commentary division of its collegiate contest, which included a $2,500 cash award. Curtis' essay "Daddy's Little Girls" explores media abandonment of "grown-up women of yesteryear for the giggly, girlish, dysfunctional heroines of today."

Eliza Wilmerding (COM'00) was a first-place winner in the New England Press Association's annual writing competition, for "The Nurse That Hurts," a profile of a female boxer penned for the Boston Phoenix.

Two first-place awards in this year's Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) competition went to COM students. Juleyka Lantigua (COM'00), who is now managing editor of New York-based Urban Latino magazine, won the top prize in the investigation and analysis category, for "The Sex Trade," about how poor women from Latin America are lured into prostitution in Spain and Japan. Cristen Pennington (COM'99) won first place in the people and places category with "Home at Last," an article about a homeless shelter. AEJMC is the major academic organization for professors in the field of journalism and mass communication.

Maureen Woon (COM'99) won the top national prize for 2000 in the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) magazine writing competition, with "One Maine," a critical look at that state's plan to get the economy moving after the closure of mills and factories put a large number of residents -- many unskilled and illiterate -- out of work. In the 2001 SPJ competition for the New England region, Anne Saita (COM'00) won the prize for the best nonfiction article, titled "Obsession."

The Society of Professional Journalists cited two COM grads for third-place awards in the nonfiction article competition: Morgan Hook (COM'00), for "Playing While Black," a profile of Sam Jethroe, the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, and Deirdre Funcheon (COM'00), for "The (Communist) Kids Are Alright," an account of college students in Cuba.

Finally, Vision magazine, the journalism department's annual publication, won second place in SPJ's best student magazine category.

23 March 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations