2025-26 Building Bridges Awards
Building Bridges Scholarship Awards
The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) has announced the recipients for the 2025 - 2026 Building Bridges Awards.
The Building Bridges Awards were created by the College and Dean Peter J. Schraeder to help undergraduate students realize their full academic potential and to support their professional aspirations and connections to their communities. Multiple scholarships of were awarded for each category in the portfolio as detailed below.
“The Building Bridges Awards reflect our commitment to supporting students who connect learning with purpose, curiosity with service, and scholarship with impact,” said Schraeder. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients. The College is proud of the many ways they are living Loyola’s Jesuit values of justice, engagement, and global understanding.”
Building Community Bridges
This scholarship recognizes current Juniors and Seniors who have a positive impact at Loyola and/or in their communities through their community-building efforts. Student applicants need to demonstrate how they have had a positive impact at Loyola and/or in other communities through these efforts.
2025 - 26 Recipients - Major(s)
- Valentina Barrera-Ibarra — Political Science, Anthropology
- Anaum Chaudhry — Data Science
- Aidan Crawford — Molecular/Cellular Neuroscience
- Kylee Davis — Philosophy
- Saniyah Fuzail — Cognitive/Behavioral Neuroscience
- Amara Grajewski — Global Studies, Philosophy
- Jordan Margolis — Psychology, Philosophy
- Amal Naqvi — Molecular/Cellular Neuroscience
- Simbiat Odetola — Biology
- Therese Panis — Psychology
- Cella Porter — Psychology
- Esha Thakker — Cognitive/Behavioral Neuroscience
- William Wade — Psychology
- Melike Yagli — Biology, Molecular/Cellular Neuroscience
Building Interdisciplinary Bridges
The awards provide scholarships to first- and second-year students, who are pursuing a declared interdisciplinary minor and declared major within CAS. Student recipients demonstrate how their interdisciplinary minor will enrich their academic training and/or contribute to their future career goals.
2025 - 26 Recipients - Class, Minor
- Eshal Ali — Sophomore, Arabic Language & Culture
- Elena Bright — Sophomore, Chinese Language & Culture
- Andrew Chang — Sophomore, Arabic Language & Culture
- Katiyana Goslow — Freshman, Global Studies
- Magdalena Hatch — Sophomore, Women’s Studies & Gender Studies
- Melody Kpahn — Freshman, Urban Studies
- Fiona Mazeikis — Sophomore, Psychology of Crime & Justice
- Margaret McGill — Sophomore, Peace, Justice & Conflict Studies
- Anyssa Pacheco — Sophomore, Computer Crime & Forensics
- Mila Patel — Sophomore, Bioethics
- Emilia Policht — Sophomore, Polish Studies
- Olivia Rutkowski — Sophomore, Neuroscience
- Heather Sheedy — Sophomore, Bioethics
- Amelia Talbott — Freshman, Psychology of Crime & Justice
- Emily Vela — Sophomore, Women’s Studies & Gender Studies
Building International Bridges
The Building International Bridges Scholarships provide awards to current juniors and seniors in CAS, who study abroad. Student recipients demonstrate how studying abroad will inform their understanding of diverse cultures and perspectives and how they will apply that knowledge to their academic and professional careers.
2025 - 26 Recipients - Class, Semester, Location
- Benjamin Braun — Sophomore, Spring 2026, Loyola Rome
- Chloe Campbell-Lee — Senior, Fall 2025, Loyola Rome
- Bri Coleman — Senior, J-Term 2026, Belize
- Warner Ferry — Senior, J-Term 2026, Japan
- Ana Iglendza — Junior, Fall 2025, Loyola Rome
- Rachael Van Der Stuyf — Junior, Spring 2026, Loyola Rome
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) has announced the recipients for the 2025 - 2026 Building Bridges Awards.
The Building Bridges Awards were created by the College and Dean Peter J. Schraeder to help undergraduate students realize their full academic potential and to support their professional aspirations and connections to their communities. Multiple scholarships of were awarded for each category in the portfolio as detailed below.
“The Building Bridges Awards reflect our commitment to supporting students who connect learning with purpose, curiosity with service, and scholarship with impact,” said Schraeder. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients. The College is proud of the many ways they are living Loyola’s Jesuit values of justice, engagement, and global understanding.”
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”