The Wilmington Fellows are Honors College students who work with campus administrators and offices to pursue major national postgraduate fellowships, scholarships, attend graduate schools and fulfilling professional careers.
Sydney Burkett is from a small town outside of Greensboro, North Carolina and was a Communication Studies major with a concentration in Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC).
Sydney's first Honors experience, a short-term study abroad experience in London, sparked her passion for learning about consumer culture, marketing, and branding which led her to her role as a Marketing Specialist for UNCW Campus Life. This position allowed her to explore the intersection of marketing and student engagement on campus. She applied these insights to another role as a Brand Strategist for Pier601 Creative, a freelance marketing agency.
These experiences positively shaped Sydney's undergraduate experience in many ways, and she is grateful for the sense of community and support that the Honors College provided along the way.
Sydney graduated in Spring 2021 (early) and plans to pursue marketing and communication as a career in higher education institutions, with the hope of returning to UNCW one day to obtain her master's degree.
Jonathan "Jack" Castarella was involved in SGA and other organizations on campus at UNCW. He transferred to NCSU as part of the 2+2 Engineering Program.
Catherine (Cat) Dancausse grew up in Charlotte, NC and attended Providence High School. Cat enjoys getting involved at the university with the yoga and Plastic Ocean Project club.
She also has enjoyed working on various research within her major and concentration; Public Health on the pre-clinical track. She is currently beginning a study analyzing the Risk Factors and Prevalence of Non-Communicable Disease in Thailand.
She also loves being involved in the Wilmington community as she is a server at the well-known Tower 7 and partakes in community yoga and surf organizations. She plans on graduating from UNCW and applying to medical school in hopes of becoming an OBGYN.
Cayden is originally from North Carolina, but she grew up in a town called Sant Cugat just outside of Barcelona, Spain. She is majoring in International Studies and minoring in Women and Gender Studies. During her time at UNCW, she participated in the FYRE program where she worked with Dr. Julia Morris studying migration and the outsourcing of U.S. border control to Guatemala.
She also worked as an intern with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, where she conducted research on the status of Freedom of Religion and Belief (FORB) in Syria, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
In her free time, she volunteers at a local dog shelter and enjoys reading and exploring Wilmington. On campus, she was involved in the Conversation Partners Program at the English Learning Center, and she hopes to become more involved with the Honors College.
She hopes to pursue Masters and Doctoral degrees in International Studies in order to one day teach and conduct research at a university.
Katherine (Katie) Stevenson was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and has loved her experience in the coastal town of Wilmington. She is very interested in science, exploring the outdoors and making the most of her time at UNCW.
She is currently pursuing a degree in Marine Biology with a concentration in Conservation, with the hopes to advance conservation efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed after graduation. During her time at UNCW, she participated in the FYRE program where she conducted research on sediment from Masonboro Island, became a member in the NAMEPA chapter on campus, and has volunteered through the OSLE.
Currently she is volunteering in the Coastal Plant Ecology Lab and will be starting her honor’s thesis in the lab in Fall 2021. She interned at a nature center in Baltimore during summer of 2020 and will be interning and conducting research at the Biological Chemical Center at the Aberdeen Army Base in Maryland during summer of 2021.
Katie looks forward to her final year at UNCW and hopes to stay involved with the Honors College!