Achievement

We expanded participation across campus and increased the breadth of the interdisciplinary experience for LEAP students. In Fall 2009, Caroline Gottschalk-Druschke, a doctoral student from the Department of English, became a LEAP Fellow. Her research involves an ethnographic study on sustainable agriculture in the Midwest and her insight into the importance of rhetoric has already enlightened other Fellows. Next fall, Art History will be represented in LEAP, when Andrew Dribin becomes a LEAP Fellow. He brings a background in urban design and landscape systems. This brings the number of disciplines represented in LEAP to seven, spanning four colleges. The value added to the educational experience of LEAP Fellows was demonstrated by the results of a network analysis conducted by the UIC Science, Technology and Environment Policy Lab conducted this year: network maps for LEAP students show many more cross disciplinary linkages than maps for a non-LEAP control group of graduate students.