During her first year on campus, Jessica Harding, switched her major from biology to the Energy and Environmental Policy 4+1 degree in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration — and she never looked back.
“This major combined what I loved: environmental advocacy and public policy,” she said. “I was able to start taking graduate-level courses my junior year, which challenged me in a new way.”
Harding graduates with an Honors Degree with Distinction in late May and will complete her master’s degree next year.
In this past academic year, she has served as a graduate research intern for The Biden Institute and as an environmental sustainability intern in Washington, D.C., for She Grows It, a firm for emerging companies in urban agriculture, research and development and sustainability industries.
“She demonstrates curiosity and an eagerness to learn and has maintained a positive attitude throughout the inevitable ups and downs of research,” said Casey L. Taylor, assistant professor, energy and environmental policy. In Taylor’s water resources management course, Harding built her senior research thesis around the topic of food waste, focused on peoples’ food habits during the pandemic.
Additionally, Harding was a member of the varsity cross country and track and field teams, serving on the leadership council for the teams and on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She earned all-conference honors her sophomore year and in her junior year she ran a time that put her in the all-time top 10 in school history in her event. This year, she earned the silver medal during the Colonial Athletic Association outdoor track and field championships.
“Athletics is where I have really learned to thrive as a leader,” Harding said. “I joined the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, became one of our team’s UDance representatives, and joined the inaugural member class of HenMinded, a group aimed at reducing mental health stigma in athletics.”
Harding also served as an Orientation Leader in 2019, leading small groups of peers, developing mentorship relationships and helping to support the entire first year and transfer Orientation program.
“Jess loves being a Blue Hen,” said Christine Yang Schultz, associate director of UD’s Honors College and a two-time alumna of UD. “She has truly grown here and taken advantage of all that we could offer even though it wasn’t always easy.”
Miriam-Helene Rudd, a double major in art conservation and art history with minors in history and fashion history and culture, entered UD as a Francis Alison Distinguished Scholar, a merit-based academic scholarship awarded to an incoming student with broad intellectual enthusiasm for the arts, humanities and social sciences. Through the Honors College at UD, she went on to enroll in more challenging, rewarding courses and will receive an honors degree with distinction.
Her academic achievements have been recognized by a Woman of Promise Award in 2018, a French Department Award of Merit in 2019, the Phi Beta Kappa Clift and DeArmond Award in 2019 and the David J. Toman Art Conservation Departmental Award in 2021.
In spring 2019, she placed second in the Seth Trotter Book Collecting Contest through UD’s Library with her 70-page collection “20th Century Mystery Adventure Series for Young Women.” Her placement enabled her to enter the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, for which she also placed second and represented UD at an awards ceremony at the Library of Congress.
Rudd volunteered with the Historic Costume and Textile Collection and worked for the Center for Historic Art and Design and the Conservation Lab of the UD Library. An accomplishment for which she is most proud is facilitating mentorship programs through the Art Conservation Club and serving as a peer-mentor herself.
“As a small major, it is important to build a supportive community,” she said. “The Art Conservation Club directly assists art conservation majors academically and socially, engages the broader community, and educates and advocates about conservation.”
Social events have included craft and game nights and museum trips. She also worked to develop an online resource that students can access for documents with advice on graduate school, examples of portfolios and resumes and a list of recommendations for art conservation-related digital media, books and webinars.
“Miriam-Helene’s leadership on campus provides a broader service to the conservation community, providing an informal outlet and resource for aspiring conservators,” said Nina Owczarek, assistant professor in the Department of Art Conservation.
Rudd has also served in leadership roles for Chronic Illness Advocates and the Swing Dance Club.
“Miriam-Helene is deeply talented, very highly intelligent and a superb ambassador for the value and impact of interdisciplinary study at the University of Delaware,” said Debra Hess Norris, Chair and Professor of Photograph Conservation, Unidel-Henry Francis DuPont Chair of Fine Arts and Director of Winterthur/UD Program in Art Conservation. “Clearly in the top 5% of all undergraduates for the past 30 years, Miriam-Helene is organized, excited, compassionate, passionate and extraordinarily kind — skills and attributes our world needs now more than ever.”
Rudd will be continuing at UD as a member of the 2024 class of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.
